Composition 4, 1978

Fernando García Ponce  

Fernando García Ponce was born on August 25, 1933 in the city of Mérida, Yucatán. At age 11 his family settled in México City. The influence of his architectural studies is visible in his works.

In 1952 he joined the National University of México, to study architecture. In 1957 he travels to Europe and makes the decision to drop architecture to devote himself entirely to painting. He had his first solo exhibition at the Galería de Arte Mexicano (Mexican Art Gallery) in 1959. The plastic work of García Ponce is part of the geometric abstraction movement, although his work was also influenced by Kurt Schwitters.

García Ponce chooses collage and thick impasto as a medium, and the canvas as a field in which geometric shapes are characterized by a complex and emotional load. Most of his collages are monumental. For Fernando García Ponce the big dimension of the canvas is an energetic factor itself, as plastic as the structure itself.

In 1960 the artistic movement La Ruptura (Breakaway movement) emerged , which defined a generational group of intellectuals and artists, in which García Ponce belonged. They were the seeds for the transformation of art in Mexico.

García Ponce participated in a group exhibition of Mexican and South American Contemporary Art in the Galería de Arte Mexicano in 1961. In 1964 he won first prize at the Esso Salon, a momentous event in the history of Mexican art, which led to the opening of new ideas and a more cosmopolitan view of art. He also participated in the group exhibit of Contemporary Art of America and Spain, held in Madrid.

At 54 years old and still considered one of the most important artists of the mexican art scene, García Ponce died at his workshop, on July 11, 1987, of a heart attack.