Doroteo Arnáiz

Doroteo Arnaiz was born in Madrid in 1936. He studied at the School of Graphic Arts in Madrid and at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris from 1960 to 1968, where he met and lived with the artists of the time. Years later he was appointed professor of engraving at the University of Paris North (1971). He was also a visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Liège (1978). Between 1980 and 1985 he was director of the National Chalcography of Madrid, where he carried out work of great merit.

He received awards at various international events, including the Paris, Liège and Brest Biennials, and won the gold medal at the 17th Madrid Engraving Salon. He illustrated two important Spanish collections of poems: Rimas, by Bécquer, with twelve color engravings, and One Hundred Sonnets of Love, by Pablo Neruda, with one hundred black and white engravings. He held nearly thirty individual exhibitions since 1957, in Madrid, Paris, Granada, Santander, Washington, New York, Milan, Bilbao, Amsterdam, etc. Notable among them are "Chronicle of a decade" (1965-1975) and "Spanish presence in Paris" (1989). He founded the Contemporary Engraving Center (CEGRAC) in A Coruña, where he carries out a very important activity in the area of ​​contemporary engraving.

In recent years he has held retrospectives of his work, including those at the Museum of Modern Art in Bilbao, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Madrid, the Alfonso Kiosk in A Coruña and the Palace of Arts in Brest. He participated in more than two hundred group exhibitions, among others the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts in Madrid, the May Salons and the Paris Engraving Biennial, the São Paulo Biennial, the Krakow Biennial, the Kyoto Biennial, the New York Triennial. Deli, etc. The unity of style and theme stands out in his works. His work is based on an expressionism close to abstraction that is replaced by an aesthetic close to Pop, characterized by the use of a figuration of geometric and clearly defined volumes.