Gonzalo Fonseca

Tower created for the 1968 Summer Olympics held in Mexico City. Gonzalo Fonseca (2 July 1922 – 11 June 1997) was a Uruguayan artist known for his stone sculpting. He originally studied to be an architect at the University of Montevideo, but discovered modern art in 1942 after working in the Taller Torres-Garcia workshop. He studied painting in the workshop until 1949, and became interested in pre-Columbian art during that time. Fonseca is frequently associated with the movement Universal Constructivism.

Biography

Fonseca was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in July 1922. He traveled to Europe in the 1930s, and was exposed to archaeology, anthropology, and history. Fonseca also taught himself to sculpt in stone and paint with watercolor. In 1939, he began studying architecture at the University of Montevideo. However, in 1942 Fonseca left the University to work with Joaquín Torres-García. While working at the Torres-Garcia workshop, he became more diverse in his techniques, trying sculpting, painting, ceramics, and drawing. During the course of the 1940s, Fonseca traveled through Peru and Bolivia, studying art with other members of the Torres-Garcia workshop.

In 1950 he left Uruguay, and traveled through several countries in Europe and the Middle East. While living in Europe, he worked in ceramics as well as painting. Their youngest child Isabel Fonseca became a writer.

In 1962 Fonseca had his first exhibition in the United States, at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. This exhibition contained mostly flat compositions, as was common with the works done by the Torres-Garcia workshop at that time. Fonseca also created wooden reliefs for this exhibition, which laid a foundation for his three-dimensional art.

Fonseca was very interested in the nature and history of the stones used in his sculpture. While working in the quarries, he would notice the changes in the stone due to climate. It is said that the fragile nature of many of these stones is why Fonseca had so few exhibitions: sand did not travel well.

Fonseca's sculpture has two clear features. The first is the intimacy that causes one to relate innately to his works. The other feature is the grandeur in his sculpture, strengthened by the simplicity of the geometric forms. His art is known as "a journey through the history of archeology." The archeological basis stems from Precolombian architecture as well as Eastern Mediterranean, and even New York City architecture. It was clear that archeology spread through all of Fonseca's work.

Fonseca's artworks also tend to be a labyrinth of thought. Some of the works contain inscriptions that may give a glimpse, but do not truly allow much insight into his mind. There are many stairways and ladders in his sculptures, which lead to tombs such as the quarries he worked in. Fonseca shared that these ladders also show the "descent into the infernos." It contains a ladder, which is common in Fonseca's work, which is known to relate to both the Hebrew ladder of Jacob and also the ladders in the quarries he excavated in.

Columbarium Major, 1976. This sculpture is known for its contrast in change of scale. There are multiple cuts into the wood filled with geometric forms, as well as his well-known stairways. This artwork also contains "betilos", known as sacred stones.

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions 1952 – "Gonzalo Fonseca Paintings," Studio Claudio Matinenghi, Roma 1953 – "Gonzalo Fonseca Ceramica," Galleria San Marco, Roma 1962 – "Gonzalo Fonseca, Selected Artworks", The Portland Museum, Oregon 1970 – "Gonzalo Fonseca, Recent Works," The Jewish Museum, New York 1974 – "Gonzalo Fonseca," Galeria Conkright, Caracas 1976 – "Gonzalo Fonseca," Galeria Adler / Castillo, Caracas 1977 – "Sculture di Gonzalo Fonseca," Galleria del Naviglio, Milan 1978 – "Fonseca," Fiera di Bologna, Italy 1986 – "Gonzalo Fonseca: Sculpture," Arnold Herstand Gallery, New York 1988 – "Gonzalo Fonseca: Sculpture and Drawings," Arnold Herstand Gallery, New York 1989 – "Fonseca, Sculpture and Drawings", The Arts Club of Chicago, Illinois 1991 – "Gonzalo Fonseca, Sabbakhin, Sculpture", Arnold Herstand Gallery, New York 1994 – "Mundos de Gonzalo Fonseca," Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas 1999 – "Gonzalo Fonseca," Fundacion Cesar Manrique, Lanzarote 2003 – "Gonzalo Fonseca," IVAM Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, Valencia

Group exhibitions 1946 – "Arte de America," Maison de l’Amerique, Paris 1950 – "Torres-Garcia & his Workshop," OAS Museum, Washington, D.C. 1954 – Bienal de Arte, São Paulo 1960 – "4 Constructivist works of the El Taller Torres-Garcia," The New School University, New York 1970 – "Universalismo Constructivo," Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires 1986 – "Torres-Garcia and his Legacy," Kouros Gallery, New York 1987 – "Latin American Artists in New York since 1970," A.M. Huntington Gallery, Austin, Texas 1988 – "The Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the U.S., 1920-1970," Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Florida 1993 – "Latin American Artists of the 20th Century," Museum of Modern Art, New York 1995 – "65 Years of Constructivist Wood," Cecilia de Torres, Ltd., New York 1996 – "Constructive Universalism-School of the South," OAS Museum of the Americas, Washington, D.C. 1999 – "North and South Connected: An Abstraction of the Americas," Cecilia de Torres, New York 2000 – "Abstraction: The Amerindian Paradigm," Palais des Beaux-Arts Brussels, Belgica; IVAM Institut d’Art Modern, Valencia