Juaquin Hidalgo Pages was born March 28, 1928 in Cantallops (Gerona), Spain. He was the first child of Jacinto, who served in the Civil Guard, and Carmen, who worked with her parents on the land. From 1929 to 1935, Juaquin followed his parents as they moved about in the service of the Civil Guard to different Catalonian towns, including Manlleu, Calella, and Vallirana.
In January 1936, Hidalgo’s parents took him to live with his paternal grandparents in Mamblas (Avila) during the years of the Spanish Civil War. These were difficult years for his grandparents because they worked on the land. Hidalgo worked with his grandfather and became a shepherd. During these years, the Falangists came to the town where they abducted various neighbors because of their Communist ideas. They would take them to a nearby forest and line them up to be shot without a chance of explanation or self-defense. These are images that lived on in and weighed heavily on the young boy’s mind.
After the Civil War ended, Hidalgo’s family was reunited in Barcelona. These were difficult years, as his father was now without work. The young Hidalgo was sent to live with his mother and brother back in Cantllops. His grandfather would sometimes take him out to the woods to hunt birds. These excursions imprinted on his mind the dramatic scenes of a trapped bird, its wings fluttering in the brilliant first light of dawn. Years later, the artist created his "Bird Series" from these remembered images.
In 1944, Hidalgo returned to Barcelona to study in various private schools and prepare to take the Baccalaureats. He was taken ill with pleurisy in 1946 and returned to Cantallops to recover. It was during this period that he began to draw and paint. Once recovered, he returned to Barcelona where he began working in a bank, studying at night in various academies of drawing and painting.
Hidalgo began his National Service duty in 1949, where he met the painters Guanse, Marques and Emilia Xargay. Because the National Service duty afforded him ample free time, he dedicated himself to painting in his studio. When his term of duty with the National Service ended, he quit his bank job and dedicated himself to painting, alternating with work in design with his brother and a friend.
In 1952 Hidalgo enrolled in the La Lonja School ofArt in Barcelona, where he met art critic Don Angel Marsa. Marsa was impressed by Hidalgo’s work and sponsored his first exhibition in the El Jardin Gallery under the title "Cycles of New Art". Hidalgo’s art was also shown in the Serque Mayllo Llot de Barcelona, along with exhibits in the collections of the Layetana Gallery. In 1953 his work was included in the First Biennial of Hispanic-American Art. In 1960 he exhibited along with the painters who form the group "Salon of Modern Art", located on Celler Petrixol in Barcelona. Through 1962 to 1969 Hidalgo’s work is exhibited in various shows, including the Galeria Lleonard and Galeria Taller de Picasso in Barcelona and others in Catalonia.
In 1970 the artist participated in the "Rapida Pintura" Competition in Tossa de Mar, for which he wins the first prize. There he meets Don Emilio Pena, a Madrid Gallery owner who buys thirty of his paintings. This results in increased recognition of Hidalgo’s work in Madrid’s art circles. He began spending summers in Tossa de Mar, where he worked and lived for three months out of the year.
Hidalgo traveled in 1971 with painter Joan Cruspinera to Paris, Holland and Germany where he saw the great Expressionist painters such as Ensor and Nolde for the first time. After this trip, his work began to take on a more Expressionist style. In 1972 Hidalgo is joined again by Cruspinera on a visit to the museum of galleries of London, where he became greatly influenced by the work of Francis Bacon. The following year he travels to New York, where he sees Picasso’s "Guernica".
During 1976-1978, Hidalgo began work on his "Bird Series", which he exhibited at the Galeria Lleonard in Barcelona and then in Madrid. His work was written about by many prominent critics and figures in the Spanish art world. In 1979 he returned to painting landscapes and still lifes, which were exhibited throughout Spain. In 1985 he met his wife-to-be, and began work on his new series "Materia". In 1988-89 he completed three "Anthology" expositions in Spain, and in 1990 exhibited in Galeria Beumers, Aachen, Germany; and the art fair of Dusseldorf. In 1991 he began his new series "Contactos", and in 1992 participated in EUROP-ART of Ginebra. He also had a one-man exhibition in Avignon, France at Galeria Ducastel.
In both 1993 and 1994 Hidalgo won the Honour Medal B.M.W. In 1996 he had exhibitions in Gerona, Sitges, and Paris.
