Enrique Gray
Enrique Grau (born December 18, 1920 in Panama City , † April 1, 2004 in Bogotá ) was a Colombian painter and sculptor . He was known for his depictions of Indian and Afro-Colombian figures and, along with Fernando Botero and Alejandro Obregón, was one of the most important artists of the 20th century in Colombia.
Life
Gray grew up in the Colombian coastal city of Cartagena . In 1940 Grau went to New York on a scholarship to study at the Art Students League of New York . There he became a student of George Grosz , who influenced Graus' early work through his socially critical expressionist style. In 1950 he became professor of painting and graphics at the National University. His work expresses the relationship with the writers and artists of the Cueva de Barranquilla ( Gabriel García Márquez , Alvaro Cepeda Samudio , Alfonso Fuenmayor and others).
In 1954 Grau traveled to Italy and learned etching and fresco techniques at the San Marco Art School in Florence . Here he was under the influence of Cubism and in particular Pablo Picasso , such as B. shows his painting La Pitonisa de Florencia (1955). In 1957 he exhibited for the first time in Colombia at the X. Salón Nacional de Artistas, where the influence of Alejandro Obregón asserted itself in his work .
Since 1959 Grau cultivated a realistic to naturalistic, sometimes fantastic, sometimes elegant style, emphasizing rhythmic structure, geometric shapes, curves and volumes and using various graphic and painting techniques up to pastel painting . His idea of combining figurative representations of "whites", "blacks" and "natives" with objects such as masks, eggs, fruits or cages brought him international fame. His work has been shown in the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Museum of Modern Art in Paris . In the last years of his life he dealt with depictions of tropical fauna and flora, for example in his series El pequeño viaje del barón Von Humboldt .
Enrique Grau died at the age of 83 of complications from a lung disease from which he had suffered for a long time.
Grau donated 1,300 pictures and sculptures to his hometown Cartagena, including some works by other artists. The most important works of the donation can be seen in the Museo de arte moderno of Cartagena, others in the Museo Casa Grau , his home, founded in 2008 .
Awards
- 1957: First National Prize for Painting in the X. Salón Nacional de Artistas de Colombia for Elementos bajo un eclipse
Web links
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gray, Enrique |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Colombian painter and sculptor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 18, 1920 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Panama City |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 1, 2004 |
| Place of death | Bogotá |