Juan Gonzalez (artist)

Juan González (January 12, 1942- December 24, 1993) was an important Cuban-American painter who rose to international fame in the 1970s and remained active until his death in the 1990s.

Life and career[]

Juan González was born in Camaguey, Cuba, in 1942. He spent his early life in Cuba until fleeing to the United States in 1961 as a part of the Cuban exile resulting from the Cuban Revolution.^[1] González resided in Miami with other exiled Cuban artists and earned his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Miami in 1972.^[1] That year also saw González relocate permanently to New York City following a successful solo exhibition at the Allan Stone Gallery^[1] and a group exhibition at Whitney Museum of American Art.^[2] It was his former Coral Gables studio that had been converted into the Permuy Gallery, among the first Cuban art galleries, with which he maintained a relationship and occasionally exhibited in.^[3][4] González had another highly successful exhibition in 1975 at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery, which subsequently went on to manage and represent him in New York for the rest of his career.

Throughout the rest of his career, González would continue to see his international profile rise as he participated in several solo and group exhibitions, win prominent awards, and have his works added to the permanent collection of renown institutions. He also maintained significant ties to the emerging South Florida art market through his ex-wife, Josefina Camacho, and her second husband Marcos Pinedo, who would become major fine art collectors and dealers in the area. The Pinedos would often represent González in South Florida and through them he participated in the landmark "Miami Generation" exhibition that gave that movement of Cuban art its name and helped solidify the region's growing status in international fine art.^[5] González would become one of the Miami Generation's most recognizable figures.^[6] Later in the decade he also designed elaborate sets in New York for two plays by famed Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, "Blood Wedding" (1988) and "As Soon as Five Years Pass" (1991), and also taught and lectured at the New York School of Visual Arts for nearly twenty years.^[1]

González died in 1993 in New York City of complications stemming from AIDS.^[1]

His work was the subject of the 1980 book Juan González: A Twentieth Century Baroque Painter^[7] (republished in 1991) as well as an in-depth, career-spanning retrospective book, Dreamscapes: The Art of Juan Gonzalez, by Irene McManus, which was published by Hudson Hills Press on the year of his death.^[8]

Style[]

González in known for creating paintings and collages that ranged from realism^[9] to surrealism^[10] and fantasy. His themes and subject matter included religion,^[11] reinterpreted scenes from art history, portraits of family and friends, and psychologically introspective expressions of identity (via self-portraits) and his struggle with AIDS. His works were characterized by their rich detail, lifelike realism, and symbolism.^[12]

Awards[]

• 1991 National Endowment for the Arts^[13]
• 1985 National Endowment for the Arts^[13]
• 1980 National Endowment for the Arts^[13]
• 1977 CAPS (Creative Artists Program Services)^[13]
• 1976, 1974 Cintas Fellowship Award^[13]
• 1984-1987 Board of Governors, New York Foundation for the Arts^[13]
• 1979-1982 Served as a panelist on the New York State Council on the Arts^[13]
• 1970, 1971 Klenkenberg Award, Lowe Art Museum^[2]

Exhibitions[]

Solo Exhibitions:

• 1997 “Juan Gonzalez: Enchanted Visions,” Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida^[13]
• 1993 International Bird Museum, Boca Raton, Florida^[13]
• 1991-92 The Meadows Museum, Dallas, Texas; Traveling to: Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, Florida; City Gallery of Contemporary Art, Raleigh, North Carolina; Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts^[13]
• 1991 Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York^[13]
• 1988 Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Ohio^[13]
• Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York^[13]
• 1985 Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York^[13]
• 1982 Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York^[13]
• 1981 Center for Inter-American Relations, New York^[13]
• 1980-81 Frances Wolfson Art Gallery, Miami-Dade Community College, Florida; Traveling to: Gibbes Art Gallery, Charleston, South Carolina^[13]
• 1978 Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York^[13]
• 1978 Tomasulo Gallery, Union College, Cranford, New Jersey^[13]
• 1975 Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York^[13]
• 1973 Corcoran and Corcoran, Miami Florida^[13]
• 1972 Allan Stone Gallery, New York^[13]

Collections[]

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York^[1]
• Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois^[1]
• The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania^[13]
• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.^[13]
• Chase Manhattan Bank, New York^[13]
• Bacardi Collection, Miami, Florida^[13]
• Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Ohio^[13]
• Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, Massachusetts^[13]
• Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana^[13]
• The Meadows Museum, Dallas, Texas^[13]
• University of Oklahoma at Norman^[13]
• Vassar College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie^[13]
• The Seavest Collection^[14]
• Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida^[15]
• Pinedo Collection, Miami, Florida ^[8]
• Permuy Collection, Coral Gables, Florida ^[3]

References[]