Lucio Muñoz

The Spanish painter Lucio Muñoz Martínez (1929–1998), born and deceased in Madrid, worked with burnt paper, wood and canvas. Perforations, tears, folds and incisions were among the ways in which he intervened on his supports. Trained at the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts under Eduardo Saurel, he later associated with the Madrid realists Antonio López and the López Hernández brothers, as well as with the painter Amalia Avia, who became his wife. His first solo exhibition was held in 1955 at the Sala de la Dirección General de Bellas Artes in Madrid.

Wood offered him a distinct field of work: he burnt and carved it, then mixed materials such as marble dust, sawdust or pulverised minerals into the paint. Muñoz described these works as “pseudo-paintings”, a term that emphasises their departure from painting limited to the application of pigments onto an untouched surface. A lot entitled “Nergu”, catalogued as a work from 1972, provides a concrete example of this practice on wood: the sales record specifies a mixed technique, dimensions of 129.5 × 97 cm, and a signature and date. His work also includes murals, notably for the European Union building in Brussels and the Assembly of Madrid. At the Basilica of Aránzazu, he created a work for the apse; his mural there received the gold medal of the Salzburg Biennale of Sacred Art. Recognition of his work is also reflected in the National Prize for Plastic Arts in 1983, an anthological exhibition devoted to his work at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid in 1989, and the Spanish Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts in 1993.

Works recorded at auction

Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer · Lot 192

Nergu, 1972

Mixed media on wood

Original catalogue wording

Nergu, 1972
Mischtechnik auf Holz

Catalogue period : 2017-06-21

Published result : 12960 CHF

Including buyer’s premium

Estimate : CHF 8000–12000

View the lot at the auction house ↗