JOAQUÍN VAQUERO PALACIOS (Oviedo, 1900 - Madrid,... Lot 43

JOAQUÍN VAQUERO PALACIOS (Oviedo, 1900 - Madrid, 1998). "Landscape". Oil on panel. Signed in the lower right corner. Size: 17 x 23 cm; 33 x 39 cm (frame). Joaquín Vaquero Palacios showed a vocation and outstanding gifts in the field of painting since he was a child, which he never abandoned completely (he himself considered himself a painter rather than an architect), leaving his brushes only a short time before his death. He studied architecture at university in Madrid, and a scholarship enabled him to complete his training in this field in Paris and New York. He collaborated on the set designs for the well-known La Barraca, restored the Monastery of Sobrado as an architect, in the 1950s was elected deputy director of the Spanish School in Rome (of which he would become director) and designed various monumental spaces (Plaza del Descubrimiento in Madrid), He restored the Clock Tower of Santiago de Compostela Cathedral and the Palace of Fonseca in the 1940s (among other buildings in the city), worked in the Office of Architectural Details of the General Directorate of Devastated Regions as its chief architect, etc. Among his awards, it is worth mentioning a few: First Medal for Architecture at the National Exhibition of 1930, First Medal for Fine Arts at the National Exhibition of 1952, from 1969 he was a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, member of the RIDEA since 1970, Gold Medal at the 1st Santander Art Fair in 1992, "Asturias Prize" in 1992, etc.It is worth mentioning, already in his painting, a clear change of style that took place from around 1980: he stopped showing clearly naturalistic references to move towards more urban forms and landscapes. He also worked in the field of sculpture with several free-standing works and others in the decoration of buildings (in which the effigy of Policarpo Herrero and the reliefs of the Grandas de Salime Hydroelectric Power Station should be highlighted). His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions all over the world (Venice, Milan, Madrid, Rome, New Orleans (United States), etc.) and is preserved in the buildings he made, in some public spaces, in private collections and in important institutions such as the Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Museo de las Termas (Italy), the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Vicente Aguilera Cerni in Vilafamés, etc.