Canogar was born in Toledo, Spain in 1935. He is one of the best known contemporary artists from Spain.

He studied under Daniel Vázquez Díaz, another Spanish painter who studied in Paris during the rise of Cubism. By the 1950s, Canogar was influenced by contemporary artists such as Miro′ and Picasso. In 1957, he joined a group called El Paso which brought a new contemporary approach to Spanish art. Most of the artists identified with a movement called Art informel which embraced free expression techniques. During this time, most of Canogar’s paintings were abstracts. By the 1960s, he used press photographs as a starting point for his paintings. He also reworked known paintings in different types of materials. The McDermott Library painting is of this era and depicts an astronaut. In the 1970s, he experimented with textural techniques within his work.

His work is in major museums around the world including the Amon Carter Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Barcelona, and the Museo Español de Arte Contemporaneo (Madrid).

He won the Grand Prize at the San Paolo Bienal (1971) and the Premio Nacional de Artes Placticas (1982), the leading art award in Spain.