SANTOS FERNÁNDEZ

“A Life in Art and Passion”

Cehegin, Spain to Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1942-1997

Born in Cehegín, Murcia, during the turmoil of World War II, Santos Fernández spent his childhood navigating the ancient cobblestone streets, rolling hills, and sun-drenched orchards of southeastern Spain. Immersed in his homeland’s rich tapestry of history, culture, and tradition, he absorbed the vibrant mix of food, music, and religion that shaped his community. Growing up under the shadow of General Francisco Franco’s regime, he bore witness to both the struggles and celebrations of his people, experiences that would later infuse his artistic vision.

Drawn to the pageantry and intensity of the Spanish bullfight, a young Santos traveled across Spain between the ages of 18 and 20 as an apprentice matador. However, he soon realized that the bullring was not his true calling. Instead, the experience awakened a deeper passion—the urge to capture life’s drama and movement through visual art. He honed his skills in drawing and painting, drawing inspiration from Spanish masters such as Velázquez, Goya, Picasso, Miró, and Dalí. In the spring of 1967, his artistic journey took a pivotal turn when he was invited to enroll at the School of Fine Arts in Valencia. That same year, at just 20 years old, he created his first cast-metal sculpture, attracting the attention of U.S. Ambassador to Spain, Angier Biddle Duke, who sponsored a critically acclaimed solo exhibition of his sculptures.

1967 also marked a personal milestone for Santos when he met Mary Cressy, an employee of the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Service. Their connection led to marriage, and together they relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he pursued a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts at the University of Minnesota. Though he embraced a new life in the United States, the essence of Spain—its landscapes, seascapes, and the spirit of the bullfight—remained ever-present in his work.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Santos exhibited in numerous galleries, earning recognition for his evocative and expressive pieces. However, his career was tragically cut short. On August 23, 1997, while sculpting late into the night in his basement studio—housed in an old warehouse connected to a local grain mill—Santos unknowingly fell victim to a lethal dose of methyl bromide. The highly toxic fumigant had been improperly contained by fumigators, seeping into his workspace through underground tunnels. This devastating incident led to his untimely passing. Methyl bromide, once widely used as a pesticide, was later banned for such applications by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2001.

Though his life was cut short, Santos Fernández’s artistic legacy endures. In May 2023, his most recent retrospective exhibition, Media Verónica, was held at rek Gallery in Tucker, Georgia, celebrating his life’s work. Today, the rights to all of Santos Fernández’s works remain with his family and estate, ensuring that his artistic vision continues to inspire future generations.

“The philosophy embedded in my work is based on the Ptolemaic concept in which man is the center of the universe, and everything is judged according to that view. Man creates line to center-focus his existential drama of life, giving a focal point to everything that is important to him; the way he is born, the way he dies, and the way he dresses, and the way he shows love, morals, pride, etc. This is all indirectly related to a more modern concept of the universe in which positive and negative charges act through each other, which creates results of “ins” and “outs,” lights and darks, good and bad, fronts and backs. We reveal those things that are important to us, and hide those things that are not. This is the threshold of the human mind.”

Santos Fernandez
March 3, 1990