José Luis Picardo Castellón (18 June 1919 – 27 July 2010)Pilar Garcia Sepulveda, "Jose Luis Picardo Castellon", Diccionario Biográfico, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain. was a Spanish architect, muralist, draughtsman and illustrator, usually known professionally without his matronymic as José Luis Picardo. As an architect he worked in contrasting architectural languages throughout his career, from the acclaimed modernist headquarters of the Fundación Juan March (Juan March Foundation) in Madrid to the neo-Renaissance style School of Equestrian Art in Jerez de la Frontera, by way of the many medieval-inspired hotel projects he carried out for the Paradores de Turismo de España. While still a student of architecture he made a name for himself as a muralist, embellishing many significant modern interiors in Spain. His drawing skills and his abilities in perspective brought him to the attention of a number of leading architects after the Spanish Civil War, and for some years he provided illustrations, cartoons and covers for two of the foremost Spanish architectural magazines. He also designed interiors, furniture and light fittings for many of his architectural projects. In later life he was elected an Academician of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and was awarded the Antonio Camuñas Prize for Architecture.
Early life Picardo was born in Jerez de la Frontera, in the Province of Cádiz in Andalucía, Spain on 18 June 1919. His father was Alvaro Picardo de Celis and his mother's family name was Castellón. He had four brothers, one of whom died in infancy. His father died in 1929 when Picardo was ten years old. With his mother and his brothers he moved to Madrid, Spain. He enrolled at the newly created for his high school education. On completing school he initially wanted to join the navy, but was frustrated by the closure of the military academies in Madrid during the Second Spanish Republic. He turned to the study of law, but was frustrated again, this time by the start of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936 when he was in the middle of his course. He had just celebrated his seventeenth birthday.
Training in architecture To avoid being evacuated from Madrid when the Spanish Civil War began, Picardo joined the studio of the architect , a professor 15 years his senior at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (Higher Technical School of Architecture of Madrid). Impressed by Picardo's abilities, Moya Blanco encouraged Picardo to abandon law and take up a career in architecture.
The Civil War and the dictatorial regime that followed it resulted in fewer architects in Spain. Some of those who had prospered during the Republic did not survive the war. Others had gone into exile or had been professionally disqualified. Under decree by the dictator Francisco Franco the (General Directorate of Architecture) was set up to control architecture in Spain and collaborate in what his regime called la reconstrucción nacional (national reconstruction). Many architects were required to be subordinate to it. Against this background, in 1945 Picardo entered the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid.Luis García Ochoa, Contestación del Académico, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, February 1998.
From the beginning of Picardo's studies, his abilities in painting and drawing — in particular his mastery of perspective — drew him to the attention of a number of architects who praised him highly.Isaac Mendoza Rodriguez and Marta Úbeda Barco, "José Luis Picardo: arquitecto, muralista, dibujante e illustrador", EGA Expresión Gráfica Arquitectónica, Vol. 24 No 36, Universitat Politècnica València, 2019. While he was still a student, architects commissioned murals from him for the interiors of their buildings, and employed him within their practices for the graphic representations and perspectives of their plans. Picardo executed his first professional mural painting at the age of 20 in 1939 in the (Figaro Theatre) in Madrid, commissioned by his architecture mentor Luis Moya Blanco. The painting of murals was the main source of income for Picardo during his youth and early career.
As a student Picardo also began to illustrate many articles and later several covers for the Spanish architectural magazines Revista Nacional de Arquitectura and the Boletín de la Dirección General de Arquitectura. His drawings in these publications have been described as showing "increasing sophistication" and being of "complexity and extraordinary quality".Juan Utiel González, "La 'acción artística' (y dibujada) de José Luis Picardo", pp 40-50, Graphical Heritage: Volume 2 - Representation, Analysis, Concept and Creation, Springer Nature Switzerland AG, Switzerland, 2020. Particularly noted in his post-student days were illustrations portraying Madrid in the 1950s and 1960s, the Spanish protectorate in Morocco, and sketches of the Canarias (Canary Islands) in 1953. He also showed a growing interest in historic architecture, in particular its preservation and restoration. Picardo completed his training by making increasingly numerous travels to study buildings around Spain and abroad. His investigative journeys around the Iberian Peninsula awakened in him an intense interest in its historical and vernacular architecture. He was described as an "outstanding" student.
Early career Architect On qualifying in 1951, Picardo pursued his interest in historical architecture by collaborating on a number of building preservation and restoration projects with the Spanish architect and architectural historian , who was 8 years his senior. Chueca's appeal to Picardo was the older man's lengthy research into what he saw as the unchanging elements of Spanish architecture that maintained their constancy despite political and religious changes. Picardo was one of the 24 signatories of the of 1952, described as one of “the most remarkable texts in the histiography of 20th-century Spanish architecture",Javier Martínez González, "El Manifiesto de Fernando Chueca Goitia: Algunas consideraciones en torn a la Autoría del Manifiesto de la Alhambra", Archive Español de Arte, LXXXIX, 355, July–September 2016. of which Chueca was the main instigator. The manifesto collected the reflections of a group of architects (Picardo among them) and "sought inspiration in the design" of the Alhambra in Granada, Andalucía for "a distinctively Spanish form of modern architecture".Marta García Carbonero and María Antonia Fernández Nieto, "The Gardens of the Alhambra and the Search for Spanish Modernism, 1953-75", Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, University of California Press, California, United States of America, 2021. This inspiration was to guide much of Picardo's work throughout his career. Its influence, particularly in his work on Paradores, can be clearly seen.
During the 1950s Picardo pursued his personal architectural ambitions, entering competitions and publishing plans and drawings of uncommissioned buildings. In 1951 in company with his fellow architect Carlos de Miguel he designed a centre for the Cofradía de Pescadores (Fishermen's Brotherhood) of Altea in the province of Alicante which attracted much attention but remained unbuilt."Centro Civico para la Cofradia de Pescadores de Altea-Alicante", Revista Nacional de Arquitectura, Madrid, No 115, July 1951.
Picardo, working alone, designed a small hotel which could be built on the Costa del Sol in Andalucía. He described it as "un modesto parador (a modest inn), resolved in a simple and attractive way"."Parador en la Costa Mediterranea", Revista Nacional de Arquitectura, Madrid, No 127, July 1952.
In competition, Picardo entered plans and drawings of a preliminary draft for the Delegación de Hacienda de Gerona (Treasury Delegation in Gerona) but came second behind the Spanish architect who had been a year behind Picardo at college."Concurs de Anteproyectos para Delegación de Hacienda de Gerona", Revista Nacional de Arquitectura, Madrid, No 159, March 1955. He also came second in a similar competition a year later with a design for the Delegación de Hacienda en Las Palmas (Treasury Delegation in Las Palmas), once again losing to Carlos Sobrini."Anteproyecto para Delegación de Hacienda en Las Palmas", Revista Nacional de Arquitectura, Madrid, No 170, February 1956.
In 1958 Picardo co-designed with his brother Carlos Picardo a six-storey edificio de viviendas (apartment building) near Madrid's Plaza de Las Ventas, designed for middle-class families."Edificio de Viviendas", Revista Nacional de Arquitectura, Madrid, No 202, October 1958.
In the early 1960s Picardo built some houses in the vernacular and historical Andalucían style on the Costa del Sol and in Jerez and, in contrast, a number of modernist apartment blocks for the construction company Urbis in Madrid. He also moved on to a series of building commissions for the Spanish Ministerio de Información y Turismo (Ministry of Information and Tourism) which laid the foundation for his notable work in the 1960s and 1970s on a large number of the state-owned luxury hotel network Paradores de Turismo de España.
Even early in his architectural career, Picardo was viewed as a supreme draughtsman, producing quick sketches, perspectives, views, details and innumerable plans of his projects in which his skills can be easily identified.
Artist As well as his work on modern buildings and on preservation and restoration projects through the 1950s, Picardo continued to receive commissions for decorative mural paintings, where he "demonstrated his mastery in the use of colour and techniques such as watercolour and oil". His works were seen in locations such as the new Hotel de Los Cisnes in Jerez, while in Madrid he embellished the Bar Jerez, the Hotel Plaza, the Residencia de Ingenieros del (Engineers' residence of the National Institute of Colonization), the Exposición de Regiones Devastadas (Exposition of Devastated Regions), the (Institute of Optics), the sales area of the Garaje Villamagna (Villamagna Garage) and in 1953 he completed extensive paintings at the Restaurante Commodore in Madrid where amongst other images he produced two large curved panoramic views, one of Madrid and one of Cádiz."Pintura Mural: José L. Picardo, Arquitecto", Revisita Nacional de Arquitectura, Madrid, No 137, May 1953. Picardo was regarded as an "outstanding" muralist."Pintura Mural en un Garaje", Revisita Nacional de Arquitectura, Madrid, No 126, June 1952.
At the same time his drawings of buildings and architectural details were published as illustrations in a best-selling textbook on monumental and historic Spanish architecture, Arquitectura Popular Española, by the restoration and conservation architect Leopoldo Torres Balbás. Picardo travelled around Spain with him, making a multitude of detailed drawings of vernacular architectural elements for Balbás' books.
Picardo's published architectural drawings were highly regarded. They were described as "magnificent" by the leading Spanish restoration architect .Luis Menéndez-Pidal y Álvarez, "Parador de Guadalupe", Arquitectura, Madrid, volume 9, no 108, December 1967, Organo del Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid, Madrid.