Juan Genovés

Juan Genovés Candel (31 May 1930 – 15 May 2020) was a Spanish painter whose work is considered to symbolise the defence of democracy during the Spanish transition.

His work has been recognised domestically and internationally, forming part of museum collections and exhibitions across the world. He received the Honourable Mention at the 33rd Venice Biennale in 1966 and the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts, given by Spain's Ministry of Culture, in 2005. His Estate is represented by Opera Gallery.

Biography Juan Genovés was born on 31 May 1930 at 17, Finlandia Street, Valencia, to working-class parents, Juan Genovés Cubells and María Candel Muñoz, from different backgrounds. His mother's family were practicing Catholics, while his father's had close links to the progressive left wing and worked in the UGT trade union's carpentry division. Political activism shaped his life and art, manifesting itself repeatedly throughout his life in his work.

The social and political upheavals in Spain during his childhood, which culminated in full-scale dictatorship, marked the painter's life and work. His first memories and experiences took place during the Civil War in Valencia, subject to bombings and one of the main battlegrounds of this armed conflict.

His first formal contact with painting was during night classes taken in the Industrial Engineering School's Artistic Metalworking department. Soon after, at a very early age, he started at the San Carlos Fine Arts school. But the stifling environment of Spanish society at that time prevented the flow of ideas and influences from abroad. As a result, Genovés found himself in an arts faculty that was stuck in the past, with teachers who defended the school of Sorolla and were set against anything to do with modern art. This led him to connect with a small group of young visual artists, with whom he created the group Los Siete (1949–1954), This led him to later set up the Hondo group (1960–1963) with whom he defended «new figurativism».

Work Despite his formal artistic education, Genovés distanced himself from the academic orthodoxy very early on. he was witness and collector of images of civil conflicts taking place in Peru, Northern Ireland, the United States and Vietnam, among others. He upends into his work that entire aesthetic of fear and repression, giving us painting that is easy to access, with socially committed issues, worlds away from the fashionable informalism of the time. neofigurativism which also borrowed procedures more associated with informalism, and after an extensive search for expression, he found his own style, becoming a crucial artist in the post-war Spanish vanguard. the human shapes in his work begin to multiply and shrink, creating multitudes, sets of individuals who tell stories of terror, of flight, of war. In others he uses elements of cinema narration, parallel language and alternating planes. His use of muted tones, sepias and greys adds to the tension and horror that Genovés presents. Nevertheless, he also created pictures such as Uno, dos, siete, siete [One, two, seven, seven] (1968), this is how the author plays with the attraction, repulsion and groupings among them.

The Seventies There was a change of perspective in his work during this decade. Genovés grounds our gaze, bringing the viewer face to face with individual aggressions. The individuals, now bigger and treated in a hyperrealist manner, are superimposed on white backgrounds, figures with spot colours, whose purpose is direct communication, devoid of flourishes. which was used for a poster that the anti-Franco platform, the Democratic Board had commissioned him to make clandestinely. The poster's purpose was to demand amnesty for the political prisoners of Franco's dictatorship. This would cost him 7 days behind bars. Although the first print run was confiscated by the police, five hundred thousand posters were printed and became hugely popular, with the work coming to represent the reconciliation and closure that it was hoped Spanish society would achieve during the democratic transition. In 2003 the painter was asked to adapt the work to create a bronze monument in tribute to the lawyers murdered on Madrid's Atocha Street, which can be seen today in Antón Martín Square. After going into a private North American collection, the original returned to the now-defunct Madrid Contemporary Art Museum, later continuing its journey to the Reina Sofia Art Museum collection. After many years in its vaults, it saw the light again in 2016, when it was exhibited in the Congress of Deputies’ Constitution Room, staying there until 2018 when it was included in the collective exhibition The Poetics of Democracy: Images and Counter-Images from the Transition, in the Reina Sofía Museum. The painting is currently in storage once again.

The Eighties and Nineties A sign of the continued dialogue between the work of Genovés and the historical events in the country is the Paisajes Urbanos [Urban Landscapes] series that he created in the Eighties. The failed coup d’état took place on 23rd February 1981, leaving behind a deep feeling of disquiet about the political and social fragility of the time. The works in this series are mostly empty of human life; they show deserted, nocturnal cities to convey the desolation and anguish felt across the country as a result of the new atmosphere. see a period of synthesis in the work of Genovés, Genovés continued working with figures that relate with one another forming scattered groups. His gaze has risen to take in perspective, going beyond local situations Now the individuals not only flee repression during a march, but congregate in shopping malls, on beaches, are held back by a huge frontier wall or are just disorientated and don't know where they are coming from or where they are going.

In this final period, Genovés continued to make a contribution to the debate on the reality surrounding him, bringing his own perspective, that as spectators immersed in the crowd it is difficult to discern. His work's artistic, political and social content is transmitted by his investigation of pictorial language, the image's static movement, visual rhythm and the use of contrast between the backdrop and the figure.

Collections and museums + Spain AENA, Madrid Asamblea de Madrid Centro Cultural Internacional Oscar Niemeyer, Avilés Colección Amigos del Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid Colección Argentaria, Madrid Colección de Arte del Siglo XX, Alicante Colección Bancaixa, Valencia Colección La Caixa, Barcelona Colección Caixa d`Estalvis, Valencia Colección Caja Madrid, Madrid Colección Caja Murcia Colección Generalitat Valenciana, Valencia Colección Iberdrola Congreso de los Diputados, Madrid Fundación Juan March, Madrid Fundación Aena Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Valencia (IVAM) Instituto Cultural Juan Gil Albert, Alicante Museo Municipal, Madrid Museo de Bellas Artes de Álava Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Vilafamés, Castellón Museu d'Elx Museo del Ayuntamiento de Valencia Museo de Cuenca Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Ayllón, Segovia Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Cáceres Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Patio Herreriano, Valladolid Museo d`Art Contemporany dels Països Catalans, Bañolas Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Unión Fenosa, La Coruña Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid Museo de Santa Cruz, de Toledo Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo (Artium), Vitoria. Palacio de la Moncloa, Madrid Patrimonio Nacional del Estado español, Madrid Fundación Caja de Granada

Europe Nationalgalerie, Staatlische Museen de Berlín Neue Galerie der Stadt, Aquisgrán Kulturministerium Badem-Württemberg, Stuttgart Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Fráncfort del Meno Museum Modern Kunst, Vienna Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Bruselas Taidehalle Ateneum, Helsinki Centre National d`Art Contemporain, París Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Róterdam Sainsbury Center for the Visual Arts, Norwich Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Roma Muzeum Lódz Muzeum Narodowum, Wroclawiu Collezione Thyssen-Bornemisza, Castagnola North America Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Arkansas Arts Center, MacArthur Park, Little Rock, Arkansas Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York Guggenheim Museum, New York Chase Manhattan Bank, New York The Art Institute of Chicago Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington The Philips Industries Collection, Dayton, Ohio Andrew Dixon White Museum, Ithaca Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) Worcester Art Museum The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Missouri Ohio University College of Fine Arts, Athens Madison Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin

Latin America Museo de Arte Moderno de Río de Janeiro Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago de Chile. Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana Museo de Arte Moderno de México Museo Rufino Tamayo, Ciudad de México Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Managua Museo Itinerante Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas

Africa South African National Gallery, Ciudad del Cabo Museo de Arte de Pretoria Museo Internacional Arte Contemporáneo, Guinea

Australia Power Gallerie of Contemporary Art, Sídney

Asia The Israel Museum, Jerusalem Museo de Arte, Nagasaki

Work in public spaces 2003: El Abrazo.(The Hug). Plaza de Antón Martín. Ayuntamiento de Madrid.

Awards 1950: Medalla de Oro, IX Exposición Arte Universitario, Valencia 1950: Primer Premio Nacional del SEU; Exposición Arte Universitario, Madrid 1951: Pensionado de 2 años de la Diputación Provincial de Valencia en la especialidad de ; Beca de Pintura (Paisaje) Residencia Oficial "El Paular" y Segovia; Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Carlos de Valencia; 1953: Primer Premio de Pintura; X Exposición Nacional del Frente de Juventudes, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid: Taller de ceramistas 1953: Medalla conmemorativa; seleccionado a partir de la II Bienal del Reino de Valencia para la Bienal Hispanoamericana; Instituto Iberoamericano de Valencia: Mercadillo 1954: Medalla de Plata; III Concurso Nacional de Pintura, Alicante 1955: Medalla de Plata; IV Concurso Nacional de Pintura Diputación Provincial de Alicante 1955: Primer Premio; Concurso "Norteamérica vista por pintores españoles", Casa Americana de Valencia: En cada puerto... 1955: Primer Premio; XV Salón del Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid 1956: Premio; II Bienal de Barcelona: Tiovivo (1953) 1966: Mención de Honor; XXXIII Bienal de Venecia 1967: Medalla de Oro; VI Biennale Internazionale d'Arte República San Marino, sección "L'immagine fotográfica": Agrupamiento 1968: Premio Internazionale Marzotto 1984: Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas, Ministerio de Cultura de España 2001: Mejor Individual de Artista Extranjero en el año 2000 por "Secuencias y Sueños" presentada en el Museo de Arte Moderno; ADCA, Asociación Dominicana de Críticos de Arte, Inc. 2002: Artista Invitado a Premios Vadepeñas 2000; Centro Cultural Cecilio Miñoz. Fillol, Valdepeñas, Ciudad Real. 2002: Premio de las Artes Plásticas de la Generalitat Valenciana. 2005: Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bellas Artes, Ministerio de Cultura de España. 2016: Alta Distinción y Gran Cruz de la Orden de Jaime I el Conquistador de la Generaliat Valenciana.