"TINO", CONSTANTINO GRANDIO LÓPEZ (Santa Olalla de Lousada, Lugo, 1924 - 1977)."Still life in

"TINO", CONSTANTINO GRANDIO LÓPEZ (Santa Olalla de Lousada, Lugo, 1924 - 1977).
"Still life in Alicante", 1974.
Oil on panel.
With traces of an exhibition label on the back (Alicante).
It has slight flaws in the pictorial surface located in the upper left area.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 58 x 90 cm; 64 x 96 cm (frame).
Grandio's painting always oscillates between neutral tones, especially white in contrast with black, in such a way that this work stands out for the presence of the warmth provided by the yellow colour of the cheese, which transmits luminosity to a scene which, due to the fluidity of the brushstroke, seems to show a dream, rather than a set of concrete elements which form part of a kitchen. With great subtlety the author idealises the concept of the still life, reducing to a minimum the objects and food that make it up, as well as the space in which they are found, whose treatment is based on broad brushstrokes of the same chromatic range, which give a great lyricism to a totally indeterminate atmosphere.
Tino Grandio studied high school in Lugo and then moved to Santiago, but soon abandoned his studies to devote himself definitively to painting. In 1949 he went to Madrid, where he was assisted by the sculptor Cristino Mallo and the painter Díaz Caneja, becoming part of the Madrid School group. In 1955 his work was selected for the Hispano-American Art Biennial held in Barcelona, and he made his solo debut in 1957 with an exhibition at the Dirección General de Bellas Artes in Madrid. Since then he has held numerous solo exhibitions in Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Paris, New York, Munich and Alexandria. He also took part in group exhibitions in Europe and South America. An award-winning painter since his youth, he won the Lugo provincial prize in 1944, and since then he has been awarded other important prizes such as the Stanley Kramer (1956), Cance (1960) and Unicef (1968) prizes, and was awarded first prize at the Anthological Exhibition of the Círculo de las Artes in Lugo (1964), grand prize and medal of honour at the first Galician Biennial (1966), and the International Grand Prize for Painting at the Marbella Biennial (1971). He took part in the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, being awarded the third medal in 1962, the second in 1964 and the first in 1966. In 1963 he was awarded the Grand Prize of the General Directorate of Fine Arts. In 1965 he was awarded a scholarship by the March Foundation. After his death, several anthological exhibitions were dedicated to him in different parts of Galicia, sponsored by the Fauna gallery, among which the Homage Exhibition held in the Provincial Council of Lugo in 1979 stands out. In 2005, the Museum of Fine Arts of La Coruña dedicated an anthological exhibition to him entitled "Painting with the mists". Tino Grandio is currently represented in the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea de Santiago de Compostela and in the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Madrid, as well as in many other museums in Spain, Europe and America.