Leonel Gongora

Leonel Gongora (Colombian, 1932–1999)

This work is offered unframed

Born in Cartago, Colombia, Gongora studied at Escuela de Bellas Artes in Bogota, Colombia and with Max Beckman at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1959 he traveled to Europe, living in Italy. From 1960 to 1963 he lived in Mexico City, where he was a founding member of both Nueva Presencia and Salon Independiente. He moved to New York City in 1963, and, shortly thereafter, to Amherst where he served as professor of painting at the University of Massachusetts for over 30 years.

Gongora's work is full of powerful images of human mortality, repression and strife. Fueled by his experiences in his homeland of Colombia, the subject of violence alludes to the tearing, oppression and massacres of his native country. Belonging to the group of neo-Expressionists that would change the direction of painting in Colombia, Gongora has been associated with key figures including Ángel Loochkartt, Carlos Granada, Augusto Rendón, Antonio Samudio and Umberto Giangrandi. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico; the Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton, Massachusetts; the Houston Art Museum in Houston, Texas; the Museo Nacional in Bogota, Colombia; and the New York Public Library in New York, among others.

Signed Gongora 63 (upper left); titled Ataque (verso)

International Institute, St. Louis, 1955;

Peoples Art Center, St. Louis, 1955;

Ryder Gallery, Los Angeles, 1962;

Pan American Union, Washington, D.C., 1962;

Zora's Gallery, Los Angeles, 1963; 1964;

Cober Gallery, New York City, 1963; 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968;

Ohio State University, Columbus, 1968;

Boris Mirski Gallery, Boston, 1969; Arizona State University, Tucson, 1970.

Kassner, Lily. Diccionario de Escultura Mexicana del Siglo XX. Mexico Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 1983;

Sanjuro, Annick, ed. Contemporary Latin American Artists: Exhibition at the Organization of American States 1941-64. Lanham, MD. Scarecrow Press, 1997;

Ortega Ricaurte, Carmen. Diccionario de Artistas en Colombia. 2nd ed. Bogata: Plaza y Janes, 1979;

Waldo Rasmussen et al., Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century, The Museum of Modern Art, New York 1993, p. 124;

Charles Miers, The Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the United States, 1920-1970,

The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York 1988, p. 278, 318; et al.