BIOGRAPHY
Requena Nozal, October 25, 1947, Zaragoza (Spain).
At the age of 12 he begins his musical training in trombone and piano in the music conservatories of Zaragoza, Pamplona, Valencia and Madrid. For several years he plays professionally in different orchestras throughout Spain.
But his great passion for painting takes him on trips throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the USA and Russia, where he visits many museums acquiring valuable pictorial knowledge.
In 1973 he marries Concepción Barraqueta Egea, who will be his most precious support all throughout his artistic career.
His first solo exhibition takes place in 1975 at the Provincial Museum of La Rioja.
In 1982 he participates in the “National Painting Contest for Young Artists” organised by the newspaper ABC, in its “VII Black and White Painting Prize” edition.
In 1996 he is awarded first prize of the “II Summer Salon New York City” organised by the Goya Art Gallery in New York.
Since 1997 he is member of the Spanish Association of Painters and Sculptors, with member number 2,753.
His first works dedicated to encaustic art date back to 1968 and reflect marginal social issues that are figurative in style. Many works of this time end up being destroyed by the artist himself because of his dissatisfaction with them. Some his sculptures will eventually suffer the same fate.
REQUENA NOZAL’S TESTIMONY:
"In 1975 I discover for the first time the Copt sarcophagi panel paintings of El Fayum (Egypt). I am so impressed and captivated, that I decide to acquire more knowledge about wax and the encaustic technique with the artisans of this country, who work with similar techniques to that period.
Afterwards I travel to the ancient fortified city of Suzdal (Russia), where there are various monasteries and dozens of churches, and where their icons are restored using the encaustic technique, tempera and gold leaf.
In Asia, specifically in the pink city of Jaipur (India), I was able to visit the artisans who where working the delicate ivory tablets of Mughal style, and afterwards in the mythical Kathmandu (Nepal), I browsed the workshops where the wonderful Thangka fabrics were being fashioned, in both cases using ancestral techniques."
In 1992 he moves to the coast of Alicante, settling down in Dénia.
In 2004 he decides to radically change his style to abstract expressionism and tachism.
Del 29 de septiembre al 23 de octubre del 2022 el Ayuntamiento de Madrid celebró en el Centro Cultural Casa de Vacas del Parque del Buen Retiro la exposición antológica 1965 - 2022 «Pintando lo perdido», comisariada por José Gabriel Astudillo, Presidente de la Asociación Española de Pintores y Escultores. La exposición presenta sus primeras obras, realizadas desde el año 1965 hasta el 2004, fecha en la que decide abandonar la técnica de la encáustica y la figuración. En el año 1976 viaja a Nueva York donde descubre a pintores del movimiento denominado Escuela de Nueva York y a los artistas pioneros de la expresión abstracta alemana. A su regreso, decide, después de una crisis de salud personal y familiar, evolucionar hacia la abstracción y el tachismo, dando paso a otras técnicas como el óleo, acrílicos, poliéster y pan de oro, creando obras de gran formato y series como «Yellowstone», «Murano», «Plancton», «Pangea» y «El Laberinto de la memoria», mural de 630 cm. x 270 cm., que representa un homenaje a la memoria de su madre que sufrió la enfermedad de Alzheimer y que simboliza la exposición. La muestra fue un éxito, visitada por más de treinta y una mil personas.
