Francesc Torres won the Velázquez Prize for Visual Arts 2024. The jury highlighted “his artistic journey with interdisciplinary work and a precursor of conceptual art that encompasses diverse media such as sculpture, installation, video art and photography.” She succeeds Marisa González, last year’s winner, for this award. The recognition, granted by the Ministry of Culture, is worth 100,000 euros.
His work, as the commission indicates, “is characterized by his deep reflection on the social and political context” and, throughout his career, “he has addressed essential subjects of our time such as war, identity , historical memory and the impact of the war. media on world perception, exploring the intersections between art and politics.
He also highlighted that he is “recognized for his commitment to teaching”, having been a professor in various academic institutions and “contributing to the development of new generations of artists”. The jury said their creations “are part of important collections of museum institutions around the world.”
Francesc Torres (Barcelona, 1948) worked as an apprentice in his father’s printing workshop and trained as a graphic designer. He then continued his studies at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1967 and became an assistant to the artist Piotr Kowalski. During this period, he began his industrial work, which followed the formal and material strategies of minimalism. From May 1968, he reoriented his activities and worked on posters for the workers and student movements.
In 1970 he returned to Barcelona to carry out his compulsory military service, an experience which he faced as a source of first-hand information on military behavior and which would be useful for his later work. Shortly after, he moved to Chicago, then New York, where he lived until 2001.
In the 1970s and 1980s, he exhibited in the United States at institutions such as the Illinois Center (Chicago), the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York) and the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art. In 1991, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina. Sofía (Madrid) dedicated the retrospective exhibition Lat the head of the dragon and exhibited in various Spanish institutions and galleries such as the Valencià Institute of Modern Art (IVAM) or the Fundació Antoni Tàpies (Barcelona).
From 2001 he moved to Barcelona and, since then, his work has been seen in exhibitions at the Espai d’Art Contemporani de Castelló (EACC), the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA); Artium Centro-Basque Contemporary Art Museum or Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Throughout his career, Francesc Torres has received several awards and distinctions that support his contribution to the world of contemporary art.
