Biografia
Baltasar Lobo (Cerecinos de Campo, Zamora 1910–Paris 1993) is one of the exponents of modern sculpture in Spain, renowned for his works in plaster and terracotta.
Between 1922 and 1927 he worked as an apprentice in the art workshop of Ramón Núñez in Valladolid, and obtained a scholarship for the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, where he stayed for the first three months, while taking drawing courses at the School of Arts and Crafts. During this period, Lobo came into contact with modernity after the impact of an exhibition at the Botanical Garden in 1929, which brought together works by Picasso, Gris, Gargallo and Hugué, among others.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Lobo took refuge with his wife, the writer Mercedes Guillén, in Paris, where they settled in the abandoned workshop of Naum Gabo in Montparnasse. From that date he fixed his residence in the French capital, where he met Picasso, Julio González and Pevsner, and became friends with Henri Laurens. Lobo gradually introduced himself to the Parisian artistic environment, and in 1945 he participated in the Masters of Contemporary Art exhibition at the Vendôme Gallery in Paris, together with Matisse, Picasso, Léger, Laurens, Bonnard and Utrillo. A year later, the sculptor began a cycle of works on maternity, a theme that presided over his work until the end of the fifties. Since that decade, he has presented numerous individual and collective exhibitions in Tokyo, Caracas, Stockholm, Helsinki, Berlin, Zurich, Paris, Madrid and Barcelona. At that time he received commissions to make monumental sculptures, such as Maternity for the Central University of Caracas (1952).
In 1977 he made a trip to Greece and Crete, from which he resumed the mythological themes in his work. During these years, he was awarded numerous distinctions, such as the Official Prize for Arts and Letters (France, 1981), the André Susse Sculpture Prize (1958) or the National Plastic Arts Prize (Madrid, 1984), among others.
