Antonio Rodríguez Luna

Antonio Rodríguez Luna (July 22, 1910 – 1985) was a Spanish painter who developed most of his career while in exile in Mexico during the Spanish Civil War. He began his career young, while still studying in Madrid and before the war had already exhibited in various places in Europe. His opposition to Francisco Franco, forced him into exile, with intellectuals and artists in the country arranging his asylum. His career here included a Guggenheim Fellowship with major exhibitions in Washington DC and New York along with exhibitions at the Museo de Arte Moderno and the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico. Despite his success, he never forgot his Spanish roots, with an exhibition in Madrid in 1971 and a return to his hometown of Montoro in 1981, after the death of Franco.

Rodríguez Luna was born in the town of Montoro in the Córdoba province of Spain. He began his art studies when he was thirteen, first at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Seville. In 1927, he moved to Madrid to study at the Escuela de Bellas Artes there, meeting José Planes, Enrique Climent, Arturo Souto and Francisco Mateos, with whom he formed the Artistas Independientes group.

With the rise of Franco, he fled Spain, winding up in concentration camps in Argelès-sur-Mer and Brand, experiences represented in the later published Diez aguafuertes.Lázaro Cárdenas and a list of artists and intellectuals worked to bring him as an exile to Mexico City in 1939.

Rodríguez Luna lived in Mexico for forty six years. Although he developed his career in Mexico, he never forgot his Spanish roots. In the 1960s, Spanish cinematographers petitioned to let him back in the country to see his aging parents, but by the time he could do so, his father had died and his mother did not recognize him. He returned again in 1975 to exhibit at the Juana Mordó Gallery.

In 1981, after the death of Franco, Rodríguez Luna was able to return permanently to Spain, settling back in his hometown of Montoro, where he donated paintings to start a museum in his name. He continued to paint until his death in the town in 1985.

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