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Painter-Sculptor Antonio López and Architect Rafael Moneo Receive UC3M Medal of Honor

3/14/18

The painter and sculptor Antonio López and the architect Rafael Moreno have received the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Medal of Honor for their outstanding and widely-acclaimed professional and artistic careers. The medals were presented by University rector Juan Romo.

Rafael Moneo y Antonio López reciben la Medalla de Honor de la UC3M
 

The Medal of Honor is the highest recognition that the University awards to outstanding individuals and institutions. It is assigned by the UC3M Governing Board on the proposal of the rector. The last medal bestowed was to Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The award ceremony took place at the Carmen Martín Gaite Library of the School of Humanities, Communication and Library Science on the occasion of the international conference “Cities: Images and Imaginaries.” After the presentation of the awards, the two prizewinners led a colloquium moderated by professor Manuel Palacio, the dean of the School of Humanities, Communication and Library Science.

The rector noted that the recognition was bestowed to two personalities characterized by the consistency of their ideas and the modesty of their works, which makes them even greater. The rector thanked both for their contribution to art and the development of cities, which has improved people’s lives. He highlighted López’s look and his ability to put mystery into his hyper-realistic portraits, and emphasized the discretion and frontality of Moneo’s buildings, which speak to us and which the termed “free spirits.”

López talked about the vital, artistic journey that brought him to Madrid from Tomelloso to study Fine Arts. He described himself as a vocational and passionate painter who has followed his instinct during his artistic career. He confessed that he stayed in the city to paint because “he likes people.” He also had words of praise for architecture, “the only artistic language that man truly needs.”

Moneo has shown himself to be supportive of considering buildings as a part of cities and not as isolated objects: the design of a new building should contribute to the construction of a new urban reality. He has undertaken his work with this idea, making him the “author of new urban images,” according to professor María Jesús Fuente, who headed the laudation speech.

López (Tomelloso, Ciudad Real, 1936) studied painting at the “San Fernando School of Fine Arts” in Madrid from 1950 to 1955. At the start of his career as a painter, he dabbled in different artistic movements such as Cubism and Surrealism, but as time passed, he moved into Realism. Since the 1960s, he has exhibited his work in collective or individual shows at the most prestigious galleries in the world. In 1990, he starred in filmmaker Víctor Erice’s documentary, “El Sol del Membrillo,” which was about the creative process of his painting. The documentary garnered several prestigious international awards. Among his many subjects, urban landscapes are the most prominent, especially his paintings of Madrid. As a sculptor, he has created works like “La noche y el día” that are erected next to the Atocha train station. He has won the “Gold Medal of Fine Arts” (1983) and the “Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts” (1985), among many other honors.

Rafael Moneo (Tudela, Navarra, 1937) studied at the Madrid School of Architecture, and in the same year he graduated, 1961, received his first National Prize for Architecture (he would win his second in 2015). His most renowned architectural projects have been the renovation of the Atocha train station in Madrid, the expansions of the Thyssen and Prado museums and the design of the Kursaal in Donostia. He has combined his work as an architect with teaching in Spanish and foreign institutions. He has taught at Princeton and Harvard, and was dean of the Department of Architecture at the latter for 15 years. He won the “Gold Medal for Fine Arts” in 1992 and the “Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts” in 2012. In 1996, he won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the world’s most important in the field of architecture.

Further information: Medals of Honor and Merit