Leandro Navarro JOHN ULBRICHT "Portrait of Leandro Navarro", 1984
		Born in 1927, he was the son of the playwright Leandro Navarro Benet and Amalia Ungría Gargallo. His high school studies were in El Colegio del Pilar in Madrid. He is a Law graduate and a Court Lawyer. As a writer, he has put on around ten plays, adaptations and musical comedies, he came second in the Premio de Novela Corta, and collaborated in the magazines "Arte y Hogar" and "Imágenes";. He travelled to England, the United States and France, where he studied the different movements in contemporary art. In 1955, he married Concha Valero, daughter of the famous collector of works by Solana, and started his own collection. In 1969, he first came in contact with Elvira González and Fernando Mignoni and they carried out a number of artistic projects together. In 1971, he joined up with Aurelio Biosca and ran the Biosca Gallery for eight years, where he managed to exhibit, for the first time in Spain, works by María Blanchard and Oscar Domínguez. He organized a Homage to Eugenio D'Ors and Torres-García was exhibited in Madrid for the first time. He set up exhibitions in various Spanish cities and the President of Mexico inaugurated the exposition on Spanish Figurative Art held in the Mexican capital. In 1978, he opened his own gallery in Calle Claudio Coello No. 4 and attended "ARCO" in its first five years;. In 1983, he installed his gallery in an 18th-century palace which had belonged to the Marquis of Caballero and which he meticulously restored. In 1979, he was awarded the Medal of Professional Merit from the College of Court Lawyers. In 1996, he was awarded the Medal from the Professional Association of Art Galleries. He was appointed commissioner for various exhibitions on Solana, Cossío, Arias, etc. He has written various articles on art subjects. He is a board member of the MAPFRE VIDA Foundation, and a jury member for the Rafael de Penagos and Camuñas Prizes. He was founder and Vice-president of the Professional Association of Art Galleries. He belongs to the Sociedad General de Autores de España. He is currently President of the APROARTE Group which comprises Antiquarians and Gallery-owners, and belongs to the "CINOA" International Society, the only one recognized by UNESCO. In 1996, he received a gold medal for Merit in Fine Arts.

© LEANDRO NAVARRO, 2006