Leopoldo Nóvoa

LEOPOLDO NÓVOA GARCÍA (Pontevedra, 1919 - Paris, 2012)
"Four reliefs". 1982.
Oil on táblex.
Signed and dated in the lower corner.
Measurements: 71 x 53 cm; 94 x 75 cm (frame).

In this work the author uses an abstract language based on irregular geometry. It is an open style, whose basic characteristic is the conception of the pictorial surface as a whole, as an open field, without limits and without hierarchy. A painter and sculptor with a Galician mother and Uruguayan father, Leopoldo Nóvoa emigrated to Uruguay in 1938, where he became associated with Joaquín Torres García. Settled in Montevideo, where he founded the cultural magazine "Apex", he was also a great friend of Jorge Oteiza and, once settled in Buenos Aires (1948-1957), of Lucio Fontana, who had a notable influence on his work. He finally left America in 1965 to settle in Paris with Michel Tapié, who had been impressed by his mural in the Luis Tróccoli Stadium in Montevideo. In Paris he met Julio Cortázar, who wrote a story about his work. He also founded, together with other outstanding Uruguayan and Argentinean painters, the Espacio Latinoamericano. However, he did not hold his first exhibition until 1964. This took place at the gallery of Edouard Loeb, with whom he would collaborate for many years. His work, which ranges from drawing and painting to murals and pyrography, abstractly evokes his memories of Galicia, with a language that shows references to abstract expressionism and informalism. Nóvoa was awarded prizes such as the Castelao Medal (1993), the City of Pontevedra Prize (1997) and the Premio da Crítica Galicia (2002). He is currently represented in the Abanca and Caixanova collections, among others.