Biography of Antonio Gonzalez Collado

Antonia Gonzalez Collado is widely recognized as a modern Spanish painter of dancers, clowns and opera singers, as well as landscapes of theIle de ...... He was born in El Ferrol ( Galicia, Spain) on Septmeber 29, 1930, and was just six years old when civil war broke out in Spain. At thriteen, Antonio had to leave school for work, and it was in these formative years that he showed an affinity for drawing.

He left Spain at 17 years of age and joined his father's business in the trade of leather goods while in exile in Tunisia, remaining alongside his father until 1956. Collado's passion for drawing never faltered and he was hired to execute set designs for various arts associations,and even exhibited his first works in these years.

Concurrently in 1955, he was sent to France to participate in a championship gymnastics touament, and ther discovered the magic of Paris and the Louvre, which prompted his return th France in 1956. A daytime occupation did not prevent Collado from attending evening classes at Montparnasse 80 (Les Ateliers des Beaux-Arts). He also attended the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere.

In September 1959 he met his future wife, Evelyn Wavrant, a pastel painter, and the couple eventually had three daugthers. In 1961, Collado began exhibiting in galleries in France and Japan.

Awards

Prix de Deauvile

Medaille d'or de la Frette-Sur-Seine

Prix de la Municipalite- Salon de I'Isle-Adam