Antonio Rodríguez Luna

(Montoro, Cordoba, 1910 – 1985)

Leeks

1963

oil on cardboard

30.5 x 60 cm

Inv. no. CAB126

BBVA Collection Mexico



From an early age, Antonio Rodríguez Luna injected a spiritual dimension into his painting, which materialised in expressionistic compositions verging on abstraction, yet without renouncing traces of the human figure or narratives that often reflect social denunciation: a female face, some individual elements of a still life (fish, a flower vase, these leeks with a lemon cut in two), a tight-rope walker, or a worker passing by in the street.

The artist belonged to the generation estranged by the Civil War, who found exile in Mexico thanks to the asylum policy put in place by President Cárdenas. Antonio Rodríguez Luna always cultivated a nostalgic view of Spain, expressed in his canvases through a strict linear arrangement, an apogee of shadows and through layering matter in rough textures. His paintings were also impregnated by the intensity of his new life in Mexico.