Juan Gonzalez (artist)
Juan González (January 12, 1942- December 24, 1993) was an important twentieth century Cuban-American painter who rose to international fame in the 1970s and remained active until his death in the 1990s. Born in Cuba, González launched his art career in South Florida duing the early 1970s and quickly gained recognition in New York City, where he subsequently relocated in 1972. While in New York González won several fine art awards, including the National Endowment of the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts grant, and the Cintas Fellowship. González's art known is for its distinctive hyperrealism and magical realism elements delivered in a highly personal style with symbolic overtones. His work has been widely exhibited throughout the United States as well as internationally in Europe, Latin America, and Japan. He is included in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, The Carnegie Museum of Art, and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Life and career

Early life
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. González initially resided in Knoxville, Tennessee before relocating the following year to Miami where he joined other exiled Cuban artists and members of the Cuban diaspora. González then enrolled in the University of Miami where he initially studied architecture before transferring to fine art in 1966 where he won a Kennedy Scholarship.

1970s: Rise to fame 
In the late 1960s, while González attended University of Miami, he was taught the airbrush painting technique by fellow Cuban artist and then-neighbor Baruj Salinas, which González then used to achieved the large-scale Realism style that would soon gain him recognition by leading art institutions. In 1969, Salinas introduced González to Jesus and Marta Permuy. González' pivotal career breakthrough came in 1972 shortly after earning his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Miami. That year cemented his association with the emerging hyperrealism movement when he participated in the Lowe Art Museum's Phase of New Realism exhibition. Within months, González traveled to New York City where he held a successful solo exhibition at the Allan Stone Gallery and also participated in a group exhibition at Whitney Museum of American Art. By the end of 1972 González made arrangements to permanently relocate to New York City and have the Permuys assume the lease of his Coral Gables art studio. This led to it being converted into the Permuy Gallery, one of the first Cuban art galleries in the United States, with which he maintained a relationship and exhibited. 

After establishing himself in New York, González participated in a 1974 group exhibition in Nancy Hoffman Gallery which led to a successful solo exhibition there in 1975. Following that exhibition, Nancy Hoffman Gallery would subsequently go on to manage and represent González in New York for the rest of his career. During this period González would twice win the Cintas Fellowship (1974, 1976) and also became a professor of fine art at the School of Visual Arts. By the end of the 1970s, González had exhibited in The Art Institute of Chicago (1974, 1977), Northeastern University (1977), Boston University (1977), University of Southern California (1979), as well as internationally in Caracas, Venezuela (1972), London, England (1976). In 1979 González was appointed to serve as a panelist on the New York State Council on the Arts.

1980s - 1990s 
Throughout the rest of his career, González would continue to see his profile rise as he participated in several traveling solo and group exhibitions, win prestigious awards, and have his works added to the permanent collection of renown institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the early 1980s he further exhibited internationally in Colombia (1981) and Japan (1983) and was appointed to serve as a panelist on the New York State Council on the Arts. The 1980s and '90s would also see González win the National Endowment for the Arts three times (1980, 1985, 1991). He also maintained significant ties to the emerging South Florida art market and continued to exhibit there while residing in New York. In 1982 González would participate in a join exhibition with Baruj Salinas. The show was noteworthy due to both artists being by that point firmly established Cuban art figures as well as sharing a common background in Miami as the springboard for their later success. Held in Miami-Dade College, the exhibition was noted by critics for the jarring contrasts in their styles as González work showcased his hyperrealist detailing while Salinas' work displayed his signature Abstract Expressionist-influenced style.

González also remained connected with his ex-wife, Josefina Camacho, and her second husband Marcos Pinedo, who had 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 1983 "Miami Generation" exhibition which gave that group of Cuban artists their name and helped solidify the region's growing status in international fine art. González would become one of the Miami Generation's most recognizable figures. In the mid-1980s, González exhibited in the Smithsonian Institute (1985-87) and won three consecutive New York Foundation for the Arts grants (1984-87). Later in the decade he ehxibited in the Pratt Institute (1988-89) and designed elaborate sets in New York for two productions of plays by famed Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, "Blood Wedding" (1988) and "As Soon as Five Years Pass" (1991). Through the 1980s and 1990s González continued to teach and lecture at the New York School of Visual Arts, a post he held for nearly twenty years. In the 1990s he exhibited in Ecuador (1991), again in Japan (1991-92), Italy (1993), as well as several universities and museums, including Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1991-92).

Death and legacy 

González died on Christmas Eve of 1993 in New York City at the age of 51 from complications stemming from AIDS. His death was covered by major media outlets including The New York Times and The Miami Herald. His funeral was held in Church of the Little Flower, a prominent regional landmark in Coral Gables.

González career was the subject of the 1980 book Juan González: A Twentieth Century Baroque Painter (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.

Style
González became known during the rise of the Hyperrealism movement in New York City during the 1970s. As such, he is known for creating paintings and collages that ranged from realism to surrealism and fantasy. He is therefore often categorized as a Magical Realist. Early in his career González was influenced by Pop artists David Hockney and James Rosenquist as well as the Renaissance and Baroque periods while he developed his highly personal representational-figurative style in direct opposition to the then-contemporary dominance of the Minimalism movement. 

Throughout his career, González' themes and subject matter included religion, 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.

Awards

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

Exhibitions

Select Solo Exhibitions:

 1997 “Juan Gonzalez: Enchanted Visions,” Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
 1993 International Bird Museum, Boca Raton, Florida
 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
 1991 Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
 1988 Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Ohio
 Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York<
 1985 Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
 1982 Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
 1981 Center for Inter-American Relations, New York
1980-81 Frances Wolfson Art Gallery, Miami-Dade Community College, Florida; Traveling to: Gibbes Art Gallery, Charleston, South Carolina
 1978 Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
 1978 Tomasulo Gallery, Union College, Cranford, New Jersey
 1975 Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
 1973 Corcoran and Corcoran, Miami Florida
 1972 Allan Stone Gallery, New York

Collections

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

References

1942 births
1993 deaths
People from Camagüey
University of Miami alumni
Cuban artists
American artists
20th-century American painters
American male painters
Cuban contemporary artists
20th-century Cuban painters
20th-century male artists
Artists from New York City
American contemporary painters
American realist painters
Hyperrealist artists
Magic realist artists
American portrait painters
Cuban emigrants to the United States
Male painters