The artist Macario Gómez Quibus, known as Mac, author of the emblematic posters of films like "Doctor Zhivago", "Psycho", "Ivanhoe", "Quo Vadis", "The Ten Commandments", "Godzilla", "The big family "or" Dr. No ", has died this Saturday at 92 years old.
Mac was one of the most recognized film posterists in the country, because of his brush emerged during a career of more than 30 years, more than 4,000 works, with images of great classics of the big screen that have remained in the retina of many viewers. Among his legendary creations are the posters of 'Casablanca', 'A tram called desire', 'The executioner', 'The stroller', 'Moulin Rouge' 'The temptation lives up', 'The mummy', 'Carmen la de Ronda' ',' El Cid ',' From Russia with love ',' Front page ', as well as some from the Sitges film festival.
Born in Reus (Tarragona) in 1926, from a humble family in Huesca, when he was only 2 years old, his father died in a work accident and he was admitted to the Casa de la Caridad in the Catalan city, where he began to draw. The civil war caught him studying at the School of Fine Arts, where he entered in 1935. In 1946, with 20 years and living already in Barcelona with his mother, who had found work in a goal, was impacted by the work of Mariano Fortuny, He resumed his studies and began working for the graphic studio Domínguez, which decorated the facades of the family's cinemas.
Reputation in Hollywood
His arrival in poster design was at the beginning of the 50s, when he was hired by the advertising design studio Esquema, by Martí Clavé and Picó, and there he drew the image of 'Ivanhoe', achieving the congratulation of Metro Goldwyn Mayer. He developed a style that transgressed the rigid norms of composition and interpretation demanded by the distributors in works of great expressive power. Soon he was in charge of all the advertising material of the distributor Tandem Films and, in 1955, he already signed as Mac.
He continued to gain a reputation in Hollywood when Paramount commissioned him the largest poster of 'The Ten Commandments', which premiered in 1956, earning the admiration of Charlon Heston, who wanted to meet him. He would do it three years later, in Madrid and Mac gave him a special portrait of the Moses of the film, which the actor would hang in his office. Kirk Douglas took the original 'The Justicieron del Oeste'. He was since then an independent artist who worked with all the American distributors of the time.
Although he was able to accept offers to work in Paris and the United States, he preferred not to leave his family. With the arrival of the video, in the 80s, he also made numerous covers, adapting the design to the new format without losing his genius. His last poster was for 'The Pleasure to Kill', 1988.