20th-21st Century Spanish

After studying at the San Carlos School of Fine Arts of Valencia, Navarro began his career in the late 1960s in the field of painting, and he did not make the definitive move to sculpture until 1972.

In those two early decades the artist very often worked with ceramics applied to industrial design, creating figures with refractory material and sand in a form that brings to mind a volcano. He also used this material in his imaginary cities, creating clusters of towers, ziggurats, temples and spires.

From the outset Navarro conceived his personal brand of sculpture as an assembly in which he incorporates a range of pieces into a whole imbued with a cinematic sense. His work is dominated by vertical structures, while his use of refractory and ceramic materials connects him with the local handcraft tradition in Valencia.

In 1973 he exhibited the first of his cities and in 1980 he showed his work for the first time in New York, followed by exhibitions in Paris, Berlin, Mexico City and Florence, among others. In 1986 he was awarded the National Visual Arts Prize and in 2008 he was appointed academician of the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Madrid.

Navarro’s works can be found in many of the world’s major museums and public and private collections. Worth mentioning is the collection of his works owned by the IVAM of Valencia, which currently plans to devote a permanent gallery to display some of the over five hundred pieces the artist donated to the museum in 2005 following the exhibition the museum organised on his life’s work.