He was born in Upata, Bolívar State,
on June 6, 1920. A painter, Sculptor, muralist, he was the son of the painter
Jesus María González Brito and Carolina Bogen Aponte. His childhood and
adolescence took place in Margarita (19231940) ; Since he was young he devoted himself to the painting and teaching
literacy to the peasants. Between 1941 and 1947 he studied in the Plastic and
Applied Arts School in Caracas. Concurrently he worked as a teacher at the
Miguel Antonio Caro Teachers College. In 1948 he travelled to Paris where he established
for 3 years and made his first works with wire, strings, and plane. His researches
and propositions inside the abstractism go through three well definite stages:
The textured abstraction, with emphasis in matter and colour, the geometric
abstraction, and constructivist abstraction with industrial materials (Plexiglas
and iron, among others). He was one of the most active members of “Los
Disidentes” (The Dissidents) founded in Paris in 1950 for Venezuelan artists.
In 1952 he returned to Venezuela and
found in Caracas with Mateo Manaure, the Cuatro Muros gallery to spread the
propositions about geometric abstractionism. He was one of the first in made
constructivist sculptures which he called “Móviles y Estables” (movable and stable),
exhibited for the first time in Cuatro Muros Gallery (1952). In 1956 he
returned to Paris and start a series of travels around the world, alternating it
with a very intense stage of work, In Berlin he made an abstract stained glass
for the Siemens. During the decade of the fifties he worked with Carlos Raúl Villanueva to integrate the arts in the University City of Caracas, making
several murals, one of them situated between the second and the third door of
the Assembly Hall entrance (Aula Magna).
In the 70's arise what he called the
"Ocumare stage" a return to the figurative art with folkloric
thematic works. The decoration of the Cathedral of San Felipe is from this
period, where he made the high altar, the baptismal font and an external wall
with fishermen and people from the coastal village. With his murals he brings a
contemporary vision to the man's destiny a kind of symbolic expressionism, in
which the line and planes that make figures, of rough or fluted lines are fused
together to recreate the world of modern life.
Works and contributions
- In 1937 he paints Luisa Cáceres in prison (Santa Rosa Castle collection, La Asunción).
- Between 1955 and 1956 he made murals integrated to the architecture in Caracas and Maracaibo and operated the artistic direction of the Integral Architecture magazine.
- In 1958 he was a professor in the Architecture and Urbanism Faculty of the UCV, where he programmed and directed the basic composition.
- One of his most important works was made for the building El Universal in 1977 with political actuality themes and extremist thematic, progress achieved with a great visual efficacy; they are reliefs with various elements that simulate carved moulds.
- In 1983 he unveiled the Monument to Sandino, donated by Miguel Otero Silva for the gardens of the Caracas Aerial Tramway station.
Awards
- In 1945 he won the award for the poster of the movie Alma Llanera, Caracas.
- In 1947 he won the Abdón Pinto Award, 5th Arturo Michelena Hall.
- 1948, National Award of Plastic Arts, 9th Official Hall/ Federico Brandt Award, 9th Official Hall.
- 1966, Antonio Esteban Frías Award 27th Oficial Hall.
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