Artist Gustavo Torner, master of abstraction, dies at 100.

The Spanish artist Gustavo Torner, the versatile master of abstraction, died this Saturday at his home in Cuenca at the age of 100, according to sources close to the painter. Along with Fernando Zóbel, the creator of the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art in Cuenca, Torner was one of the most representative Spanish artists of the second half of the 20th century.

His work can be found in public and private collections, in museums, institutions, and organizations, as well as in iconic outdoor venues such as the Library of Congress in Washington, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Plaza de los Cubos in Madrid. Born in 1925, the artist was a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando and a Gold Medalist.

The artist celebrated his centenary two months ago at his home in Cuenca, surrounded by his family and closest friends, while foundations, museums, galleries, and even the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando paid tribute to the painter, sculptor, engraver, designer, museographer, and artistic advisor.

He was born in Cuenca on July 13, 1925, and studied Forestry Engineering in Madrid, when his teachers discovered his talent for drawing, which led him to create botanical plates for the publication Flora Forestal Española . After finishing his studies in 1947, Torner was assigned to Teruel, although he continued painting and exhibiting until 1962, when the Tate Gallery in London acquired one of his works and he exhibited at the VI Venice Biennale, where he met the painter Fernando Zóbel. Both discussed founding the future Museum of Spanish Abstract Art, which opened in 1966 in the Casas Colgadas in Cuenca and brought together a group of artists such as Gerardo Rueda, Antonio Lorenzo, Rafael Canogar, Manuel Millares and Martín Chirino, members of what became known as "The Cuenca Group", although Torner himself claimed that "the "group" thing was said by others, we were just a group of friends."

In the 1960s, he combined painting and sculpture. Several monumental works from this period are exhibited in Madrid, including Plaza-Escultura, a fountain inspired by the writer Jorge Luis Borges, on Serrano Street; La rectitud de las cosas (The Rectitude of Things ) in Carabanchel; and Reflexiones (Reflections ), the famous cascade of metal cubes in Madrid's Plaza de los Cubos. In Cuenca, he created the monument to the Constitution and participated in the General Urban Planning Plan for that city.

A versatile artist, Torner also worked in interior design, architectural decoration, theatrical stage design, and museum and exhibition design. He left his mark on the design of the Diocesan Museum of Cuenca Cathedral, the Sculpture Garden of the Juan March Foundation in Madrid, the Loewe branch in New York, and the stained-glass windows for the Main Chapel of Cuenca Cathedral. An artistic advisor to the Juan March Foundation for 30 years, Torner organized and designed exhibitions such as Arte'73, an anthology of contemporary Spanish art with which the foundation officially launched its cultural activities in Madrid in 1975; the exhibition Goya: Caprichos-Desastres-Tauromaquia-Disparates (1979), and the exhibitions that introduced the Madrid public to artists such as Francis Bacon, Mark Rothko, and Andy Warhol.

A frequent contributor to the Prado Museum, in 1982 he joined the team restructuring new galleries. He also designed stage sets and costumes, such as those for the opera The Poet , starring Plácido Domingo, at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid. Among his exhibitions, the retrospective dedicated to him in 1991 by the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid was a highlight. It was at this center that the artist placed some six hundred of his works in 2003. The following year, he created the Torner Foundation, and on December 7, 2005, after completing the restoration of the Church of San Pablo, in the former Dominican convent in Cuenca, the Espacio Torner was inaugurated. This museum permanently displays the artist's paintings and sculptures, many of them on loan from the Reina Sofía Museum.