"For decades, Antonio López Garcķa has defamiliarized Madrid in his paintings, and in Antonio López Garcķa s Everyday Urban Worlds: A Philosophy of Painting, Benjamin Fraser defamiliarizes López s paintings. He looks, thinks, feels, and walks us through the artists seen-and-unseen Madrid in a journey that is in equal parts realistic and oneiric, and he does so with telling accuracy. López is eminently a painter of place, and Fraser takes us in and out of the frames in a constant movement between the canvas and its social surroundings. But he also shows us that López is just as eminently a painter of time, and he guides us to Madrids past and its historical and artistic links to the present. The result is an important contribution to the study of contemporary Madrid and its culture." -- Edward Baker, author of Madrid Cosmopolita: La Gran Vķa 1910-1936 and Materiales para escribir Madrid Antonio López Garcķas Everyday Urban Worlds confirms Frasers growing reputation as the leading practitioner of cultural geography in the field of Hispanic studies. His look at three key López paintings begins as a critical stroll through a half century of life and literature in Spains capital city but quickly morphs into an often breathtaking tour de force analysis of cultural artifacts, historical detail, and spatial theory wherein the processes of the very urbanization of consciousness are laid bare. At the same time, by highlighting the dialogue of these paintings with not merely the city as object but with the rich complexity of urbanization as process, Fraser breathes new life into the López oeuvre, gifting the artist the critical attention he clearly merits. -- Nathan Richardson, associate professor of Spanish and chair of the Department of Romance and Classical Studies, Bowling Green State University Taking his cue from López Garcķa, a self-described tireless city stroller, Fraser expertly moves through vast expanses of urban time and space to peel back the layers of each locales discursive palimpsest, integrating commentary of well-known representations of Madrid created by the capital citys most attentive observers (like authors Larra, Mesonero Romanos, Galdós, Martķn Santos, and filmmakers Nieves Conde or Amenįbar); histories of turn-of-the-century urban expansion, postwar speculation, immigration and neighborhood associations; and urban philosophy, especially the work of Henri Lefebvre. Frasers great achievement is to present the landscapes in Lópezs communiqués as a deeply human invitation for us to connect the lived spaces of the city with a greater understanding of our contemporary urban condition. -- Francie Cate-Arries, professor of Spanish at the College of William and Mary
