1933-2010

The architect, painter and sculptor Joaquín Vaquero Turcios, author of works like the monument in Madrid’s Plaza de Colón (1977), or that devoted to Francesc Macià in Barcelona’s Plaza de Cataluña (1983), died in Santander at the age of 77. Though born in Madrid and trained as architect in Italy and the United States, Vaquero Turcios was part of a family of renowned artists with roots in Asturias. Married to the poet Mercedes Ibáñez Novo, his mother was Rosa Turcios Darío, niece of Rubén Darío, and his father was the also architect and sculptor Joaquín Vaquero Palacios, author of rationalist residential projects and public buildings, as well as of hydroelectric power stations in Asturias, like the Salime plant (1955), with a large mural in which his son Joaquín collaborated when he was 22. His long list of works includes, aside from sculptures in public spaces, the murals of the Spanish pavilion at the New York World’s Fair (1964), of the Royal Theater of Madrid (1967) and of Barajas Airport (1968); the intervention in the La Unión y el Fénix Building in Madrid (1970); and the posthumous project to refurbish the El Molinón soccer stadium, in Gijón.