Antonio Alonso Martinez

Antonio Alonso Martinez
Martinez on charity mission in Africa in 2005.

Antonio Alonso Martinez (born 29 April 1963 in Oeiras Portugal) - is a Spanish painter and a philanthropist with an extensive charity work in Africa. For a decade he traveled throughout West Africa, having lived with the Yoruba people in Nigeria.[1]

Since the 80s, Martinez questions the credibility of contemporary thought. For 30 years, he questions the role of spiritual content's art in today's consumer society.[2] Martinez uses a very personal method of alienating his sitters in order to express allusions, possible questions or even criticism raised against the depicted persons, or at least against our perceptions of those people.[3]

Martinez was one of the mainly responsible of the Portuguese visual art's Boom in the 80s.[4][5]

Being born in Portugal to Spanish parents he opted for the Spanish nationality in 1978. Lives and works in Spain since 2011.

He studied Fine Arts at the Center for Art and Visual Communication, Lisbon, Portugal.

In 1984 was co-author of the Manifest of the Multi-instrumentalist Painting published in the Newspaper of Letters, Arts and Ideas on 26 June 1984. This manifest was accompanied by an exhibition at the University of Fine Arts of Lisbon, creating controversy among the new artists and critics, because was a denunciation against the empty NeoAcademy.[6]

In January 2011 one of his work - Portrait of Kurt Cobain - reached the second higher value in the sale of Contemporary Art at the Austrian auction house Dorotheum.[7] In September 2012 another portrait of Kurt Cobain by Martinez was sold at Christie's in London.[8] In January 2013 in Warsaw one of his works - Diana - reached the highest value in the auction of Forbes Millionaires Club.[9]

Antonio Alonso Martinez doesn't give interviews.[10]


References

  1. ↑ "Biography of Antonio Alonso Martinez on Artfinding.".
  2. ↑ "Portuguese Newspaper Jornal de letras Artes e Ideias". 11 December 1990.
  3. ↑ "Antonio Alonso Martinez at auction in Berlin.".
  4. ↑ "Martinez - A New Visual proposal - Portuguese Newspaper Jornal de letras Artes e Ideias, December 1988".
  5. ↑ "Jornal de letras Artes e Ideias". 26 July 1984.
  6. ↑ "Manifest of the Multi-instrumentalist Painting - Jornal de letras Artes e Ideias". 26 July 1984.
  7. ↑ "Auction result at Dorotheum".
  8. ↑ "Antonio Alonso Martinez at Christie’s".
  9. ↑ "Antonio Alonso Martinez at Forbes".
  10. ↑ "Information from personal assistant to the artist".

External links