Fernando García Ponce

FERNANDO GARCIA PONCE (Mérida, Yucatán, 1933 - Mexico City, 1987)
Untitled.
Oil and collage on canvas.
Measurements: 76 x 115 cm.
Provenance: Maria Lluisa Borrás Collection, Barcelona.
Fernando García Ponce belongs to the generation of the late fifties called the "Generation of the Rupture", since his proposal marked a total distance with the so-called Mexican School. Thus, expressions such as geometrism, abstraction, informalism, neo-figurative, which were almost forbidden artistic expressions in the 60's, began to dominate the art scene.
He was born on August 25, 1933 in Merida, Yucatan. When he was 11 years old, his family moved to the capital of the country. In 1952 he entered the National Autonomous University of Mexico to study architecture; he also attended the workshop of the Valencian painter Enrique Climent, who recognized his talent and, although he did not devote himself to teaching, decided to become his teacher. His first paintings date from 1954, they are family portraits, however, two years later, geometry increases significantly in his works. In 1957 he made several trips to Europe and decided to leave architecture to devote himself completely to painting. His first individual exhibition was at the Galería de Arte Mexicano (1959), with 26 oil paintings of still life; in 1960 he made an abstract composition entitled No. 1, a watershed that definitely marks his work. With a series of collages he receives an honorable mention in the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana. In the sixties the term Ruptura arises, which defines a generational group of artists, to which Fernando García Ponce belongs and which marked the new Mexican painting. García Ponce participates again in the Galería de Arte Mexicano and in the Colectiva de Pintura Contemporánea de México y América del Sur (1961). Two years later his painting is already totally abstract and he exhibits 14 works at the Juan Martin Gallery. He also participates in the Colectiva de Arte Actual de América y España, held in Madrid. By 1974 his painting reveals the will to synthesize the cold geometric order. During the summer of 1976 García Ponce travels with his wife Denise and his son Esteban to Paris, then spends a season in Barcelona, where he makes two graphic folders containing 10 serigraphs and 12 lithographs. Upon his return to Mexico, the Museum of Modern Art (1978) organizes a large exhibition of 40 works produced between 1977 and 1978. A year after this event, his wife Denise dies tragically, however, Garcia Ponce remains concentrated and his creativity remains intact; the painting of those years is powerful and extremely inspired. He regularly presents his annual exhibition at the Ponce Gallery and participates in group exhibitions at the Casa de las Americas (Cuba), the Picasso Museum (Antibes, France), the Jornadas Culturales de Colombia, the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburg (USA) and the National Art Center in Ottawa (Canada), among others. At 54 years of age and considered one of the most important artists of the national plastic arts, García Ponce died in his studio (July 11, 1987) of a myocardial infarction.