ACTIVITY
Alberto Francisco Chueca Lenzano is a highly experienced glass artist: he was trained over 14 years and has plied the glazier’s trade in Olite (Navarra) for 32 years. He does every job with traditional techniques, using the particular tools of this craft: template cutters, glass… cutters, a lead-came profiling machine, paintbrushes, etc. He uses a furnace both for new glassware and for restorations, where the project so requires.
He has made all kinds of stained glass for architectural applications: wall facings, ceilings, domes, painted grisaille, enamels, muslin glass, silver stain and hydrofluoric-acid engraving.
Aesthetic audacity has on occasion prompted him to introduce new materials into stained-glass panels: opaque items such as iron plates or translucent components such as agate stone. Here he has also encountered problems, such as oxidation and contamination from an exterior iron plate.
TRAINING
Alberto Chueca studied at Université Vincennes Paris VIII, in the Faculty of Visual Arts. He learned drawing at the Pamplona School of Arts and Crafts for four years and later he studied Fine Arts at the Massana School in Barcelona (five years of drawing, painting… and mural techniques, and five of stained glass).
TEACHING
He has been an instructor for three years in vocational workshops organised by the Government of Navarra, teaching stained-glass techniques.
SELECTED WORK
Restoration:
– Stately houses in Olza and Tafalla, Navarra
– Council Chamber of the Town Hall of Tafalla
– Casa Azcona, Tafalla
– Church of San Lorenzo in Pamplona, Chapel of San Fermín: dome, round window and baptismal font
– Cathedral of Calahorra, La Rioja
– Town Hall and… Municipal Museum of Calahorra
– Romanesque Church of San Miguel in Estella, Navarra
– Town Hall of San Adrián, Navarra
– Church of Fustiñana, Navarra
– Church of Cintruénigo, Navarra
– Facade of the Carmelite Church in Pamplona
– Dome of the Church of Santiago in Calahorra
– Church of San Andrés in Calahorra
– Church of Préjano, La Rioja
– Franciscan Church of Atotxa in San Sebastián
– Foyer of the Las Nieves building in Vitoria, Álava (Basque Country University Library)
– Art Nouveau stained glass in a stately house in Calle Maestro Estremera, Zaragoza
– Historic state-owned hotel in Olite
– Church of San Pedro in Olite
– Church of Santa María la Real in Olite
– Hotel Remigio in Tudela, Navarra: Art Nouveau stained glass
– Pamplona City Hall: foyer ceiling and round window in the main stairway
– Castle of Javier, Navarra: stained-glass windows in the basilica
– Cathedral of Tudela: colourless geometric stained glass in the main sacristy, dated to 1630
– Church of Santiago in Elizondo, Navarra
– Church of San Pedro de la Rúa in Estella
– Seminary of Bergara, Gipuzkoa
New work:
– Facade of Pamplona City Hall
– Towers of Pamplona Cathedral
– Gothic window in the Romanesque Church of San Miguel in Estella
– Mantería Church in Zaragoza
– Town Hall of Olite
– Church of San Juan Evangelista in Peralta, Navarra
– Chapel of Quel, La Rioja
– Rose and lancet windows in the Church of Santa María la Real, Olite
– Monastery of Fitero, Navarra
– Historic state-owned hotel in Santo Domingo de la Calzada, La Rioja
– Church of San Pedro de la Rúa in Estella
– Palace of El Alcazarejo in Trujillo, Cáceres province
– Navarra coat of arms on the main facade of the Palace of Navarra, Pamplona
