The Leandro Navarro Gallery was founded in 1978 by the gallery owner and collector after whom it is named, a former playwright and court attorney.

Leandro Navarro, a great lover of the fine arts since childhood, became acquainted with impressionism and avant-garde art during his time as a student in Paris. After returning to Spain to continue his law studies, he married Conchita Valero (daughter of the collector Juan Valero) in 1955 and they started their own art collection.

From 1971 to 1978, he was a partner and director of the Biosca Gallery, where he became deeply acquainted with the “trade” of the gallery owner and the Spanish and international art market and participated in the founding of the 1st Association of Art Gallery Owners in Spain.

At the end of his collaboration with Biosca, he decided to set up on his own gallery in Calle Claudio Coello in Madrid and presented the work of artists such as Amalia Avia, Carmen Laffón, Antonio López, Francisco López, Julio López, Luis Marsans, María Moreno and Isabel Quintanilla at the first edition of ARCO, artists with whom the gallery continues to work to this day.

The gallery finally opened its doors in its current location in 1983, after the restoration of the 18th century building (the house-palace of the Marqués de Caballero) located at Calle Amor de Dios 1, in Madrid. In 1987, his son Íñigo Navarro, the current director, joined the museum. He has continued his commitment to the historical avant-garde by organising exhibitions dedicated to artists such as Lucian Freud, Gleizes, Lindner, Miró, Morandi, Picasso, Schwitters and Torres-García. It also pursues a committed interest in the internalisation of the best Spanish realism, both that of the pioneering generation and that of the continuators of this language, such as César Galicia, Clara Gangutia, Gerardo Pita, Joaquín Risueño, Juan Carlos Savater and Álvaro Toledo, among others.

The gallery’s current activity is based around five exhibitions a year in its Madrid gallery and its participation in fairs such as ARCO Madrid, ARCO Lisboa and Art Basel Miami Beach. It also has the close collaboration of the legacies of artists such as Juan Barjola, Francisco Bores, Pablo Gargallo, Manolo Millares, Benjamín Palencia, Manuel Rivera, Manuel Padorno and Darío Villalba.

–Íñigo Navarro