Federico Tormo Monzó. Ink drawing. 17x24cm. "Valencia C. F. 2- Spanish 0". 1940s. Hand signed. Soccer.
Excellent Valencian cartoonist and caricaturist.
Federico Tormo Monzó was born in Pinoso on April 15, 1890 and died in Valencia on September 12, 1971. He moved from his homeland to Valencia at the age of 17, and settled there, having D. Ricardo Verde. Although in 1927 he obtained the first prize for posters announcing the July Fair, also winning other prizes in Granada, his first steps in the city of Turia were as a cartoonist in the sports section of the newspaper “Las Provincias”, among others. the years 1931 and 1935, with series dedicated to caricatures of renowned footballers and boxers, directors of Valencian clubs, journalists, and practitioners of other fashionable sports, such as greyhound racing. He stood out for his skill with a pencil when taking notes on sporting events, which were published periodically. He sometimes signed his drawings with the pseudonym “Motor”, which appears in some of his caricatures.
But he not only cultivated the sporting theme, since he also stood out for his drawings related to bullfighting art, caricaturing bullfighters of the stature of Marcial Lalanda, Félix
Rodríguez, Vicente Barrera or Domingo Ortega. Characters of Valencian culture, such as musicians and writers, were also portrayed by Tormo Monzó with his particular stroke.
After the Civil War, the artist continued drawing, but alternating the art of caricature with that of painting, capturing the landscape of the cities he visited, such as Granada, Bilbao and Zaragoza, as well as Valencia.
The countless individual exhibitions that he held throughout his life stand out, both in the city of Turia and in other parts of the country, and he has various paintings spread abroad, one of them in the private collection of Winston Churchill.
The painter's line is followed by his only student, José Agustí García, who knew his Artwork and shared his studio for more than 25 years.