José Hernández

José Hernández (Tánger, 1944 - Málaga 2013) has developed a personal style that conflates a meticulous technique with a world of symbolic connotations, marked also by Surrealism. His work highlights such central themes as the human figure and architecture, both in process of decomposition and ruin, inviting the viewer to reflect on the inexorable passage of time. Monsters and ruins rife with literary symbolism are found, almost always in a theatrical space, unstable and in perpetual change. Added to his extensive work as painter and engraver are his stage scenery pieces and his numerous book illustrations, especially his illustrations for texts by Luis Buñuel, James Joyce, and Rimbaud. Since 1980 Hernández has lived in Madrid and Málaga. In 1981 he won the Premio Nacional de las Artes Plásticas and in 1989 he was named a member of the Real Academia de San Fernando. In 2006 he received the Premio Nacional de Arte Gráfico.