Timeline

He was born on April 28th, 1932, in Madrid. As the son of a goldsmith, he receives his first sculpting lessons from his father. Later on, he studies at the School of Arts and Crafts of Madrid, where he is taught by Jose Capuz, and at the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts.

In 1956 he receives a scholarship granted by the Ministry of Education to live in Italy and Greece. He also lives for some time in Paris, broadening his artistic education. Some years later he receives another grant for the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and a grant awarded by the Juan March Foundation to perform a research study on wood carving and polychromy.

Married to the painter Isabel Quintanilla, Lopez opens his first exhibition in 1955, together with other realist artists of his generation such as Antonio Lopez Garcia and his own brother, Julio Lopez Hernandez (with whom he formed the so-called "group of Madrid Realists"), and an informalist, Lucio Muñoz. In 1957, he gets second prize in the contest for the monument to Calvo Sotelo, and in 1969 he is appointed Medallistics teacher at the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts.

His first individual exhibition takes place at Frankfurt's Meyer Ellinger Gallery in 1978. Since then, he has exhibited his work at the Egam Gallery in Madrid, the Town Council of Logroño, the Brockstedt Gallery in Hamburg, the Leandro Navarro Gallery in Madrid, Torres Muntadas Gallery at the Prat de Llobregat (Barcelona), Barbie Gallery in Barcelona and the Cultural Centre Conde Duque in Madrid, which organizes an anthological exhibition of the artist's work in 1996.

Some of his best-known public sculptures include: the monument to Charles III in Pamplona; the monument to Jose Antonio Aguirre y Lecube and to Blas de Otero, in Bilbao; the monument to Tierno Galvan and Velazquez and the "Tribute to the commercial agent" in Madrid, and the "Woman in the Fountain" in Logroño. Working together with Rafael Moneo, he also sculpted the relief of Madrid at the Complutense University School of Philosophy.

The list of museums and public collections housing his work include: the Reina Sofia National Art Museum in Madrid, London's British Museum, the New Art Gallery of Munich, Voor Schone Kunsten Museum in Gante (Belgium), National Gallerie in Berlin and the Juan March Foundation.