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memorial memorial José Hernández Muñoz Born: 5th January 1944 Tangiers - MOROCCO Died: 20th November 2013 Málaga - SPAIN Painting is an essential silence of images José Hernández From his beginnings in engraving techniques in 1967, Hernández was the author of a fruitful graphical body of work, including various publications on bibliophily. An excellent drawer, in addition to his work as a painter and engraver, he worked as an illustrator, set designer and costume designer in both theatre and film projects. The winner of various national and international awards, he was given the National Fine Art Prize in 1981 and the National Graphic Art Prize in 2006. He has worked between Madrid and Málaga since 1980, and his etching and illustrating work has come to be widely-recognised. He used to insist that noise frightened him and perhaps for this reason he decided to acquire and old windmill in the village of Villanueva del Rosario, close to Málaga, as both residence and workshop. A hugely talented artist with the air of a Castilian nobleman, Hernández insistently worked on the human figure and surrealist-edged representations of the desolation and decadence the passage of time entails. He was chosen as Academic Member of the San Fernando Royal Fine Art Academy in 1988, directed the National Intaglio Institute between 2006 and 2008 and was a member of the Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Royal Fine Arts Academy in Seville and the European Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Art in Paris. Hernández, whose talent was discovered by the sadly deceased Emilio Sanz de Soto, used to consider himself a man of solitude and desperate optimism. His work, mysterious, ambiguous and frequently sombre, is littered with historical references. With his extremely personal ‘vanitas’, tinged with chiaroscuro , he reflects upon the fleeting nature of life, on ruin and decline, using a palette of ochred, earthy, green tones to create phantasmagorical atmospheres that appear to want to unravel the essence of existence and death. Now, he rests in the Sacramental de San Justo cemetery together with the mortal remains of other great 19 th century literary and artistic figures. de Arte Gráfico en 2006. A caballo entre Madrid y Málaga desde 1980, su trabajo como grabador e ilustrador llegó a alcanzar un gran reconocimiento. Solía insistir en que el ruido le espantaba y quizás por ello decidió un día adquirir un viejo molino en la localidad malagueña de Villanueva del Rosario, donde había fijado su residencia y su taller. Artista de gran oficio, con aspecto de hidalgo castellano, trabajó con insistencia la figura humana y una suerte de representación de tildes surrealistas de la desolación y decadencia que arrastra el transcurrir del tiempo. Elegido académico de número de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando en 1988, dirigió la Calcografía Nacional entre los años 2006 y 2008 y fue miembro de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Santa Isabel de Hungría de Sevilla y de la Academia Europea de las Ciencias, las Letras y las Bellas Artes de París. Hernández, cuyo talento en su día fue revelado por el gran intelectual ya fallecido Emilio Sanz de Soto, decía considerarse un hombre solitario y un optimista desesperado. Su obra, misteriosa, ambigua y frecuentemente sombría, está salpicada de alusiones históricas. Con sus personalísimos vanitas, con cierto regusto tenebrista, reflexiona sobre la fugacidad de la vida, sobre la ruina y el declive, sirviéndose para ello de una paleta de tonos ocres, terrosos y verdes para recrear fantasmagóricas atmósferas que parecen querer deshilachar la esencia de la existencia y de la muerte. Ahora reposa en la Sacramental de San Justo, junto a los restos mortales de otros grandes personajes artísticos y literarios del siglo XIX. 40