American, 1898 - 1993
After spending some time in Mexico, Gonzalez came to America in the mid-1920s. He studied at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago, taking night classes while working at odd jobs to support himself. He then was in San Antonio, Texas, where he studied with his uncle, Jos‚ Arpa, and taught in the San Antonio public schools. His first mature professional position was with the faculty of Sophie Newcomb College, New Orleans, Louisiana, where he taught for twelve years. In this period he executed eight large murals on the modern history of flight for the New Orleans Shushan (now Lakefront) Airport, inaugurated in 1934.
In this period he also married Ethel Edwards, his most promising student at Newcomb, whose independent artistic career has paralleled his own; they often were the subject of two-person exhibitions.
During World War II, Gonzalez was employed by the United States Army and Navy Education and Information Department in Washington, D. C., in designing and executing posters and patriotic displays. Following the war he settled in New York.
An exceptionally versatile artist, Gonzalez painted in oils, watercolor, and tempera--the technique on which he gave a series of lectures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1943. He sculpted in a variety of media, including paper, a form in which he began experimenting in about 1980. He worked in figurative as well as abstract styles, and in monumental as well as conventional scale. In addition to his mural for the New Orleans airport, early in his career Gonzalez, as the winner of the Los Angeles Museum of Arts and Sciences International Mural Competition, executed murals for the Museum. In 1963 his forty-foot fiberglass sculptural mural portraying the development of man in abstract and geometric symbols was unveiled in David B. Steinman Hall, City College of the City University of New York.
In addition to a number of distinguished grants, including a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 1947, Gonzalez received a great many awards for his paintings in watercolor and oils. Among these were Charles E. Dana and George Walton Dawson medals of the Philadelphia International Water Color Society competition, 1953; and gold medals from both the National Arts Club, and the New York Audubon Artists. In the Academy's annual exhibitions he won the Speyer Prize, 1958; Obrig Prize, 1962; and Cook Prize, 1980. In 1987 Columbia University conveyed on Gonzalez its Florence Brevoort Eickemeyer Award, given every five years to an artist nominated by the Academy for the recipient's lifetime achievement.
Gonzalez was also a dedicated teacher. He served on the faculties of the school of the Brooklyn (New York) Museum, and New York's Art Students League, and was artist in residence at Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 1953-54. In the mid-1940s he established his summer studio in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, and with it his own summer school. Among his other contributions to his profession were his service on the Academy Council: a three-year term as a member begun in 1967; assistant corresponding secretary, 1974 to 1979; and corresponding secretary 1979 to 1984.
In this period he also married Ethel Edwards, his most promising student at Newcomb, whose independent artistic career has paralleled his own; they often were the subject of two-person exhibitions.
During World War II, Gonzalez was employed by the United States Army and Navy Education and Information Department in Washington, D. C., in designing and executing posters and patriotic displays. Following the war he settled in New York.
An exceptionally versatile artist, Gonzalez painted in oils, watercolor, and tempera--the technique on which he gave a series of lectures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1943. He sculpted in a variety of media, including paper, a form in which he began experimenting in about 1980. He worked in figurative as well as abstract styles, and in monumental as well as conventional scale. In addition to his mural for the New Orleans airport, early in his career Gonzalez, as the winner of the Los Angeles Museum of Arts and Sciences International Mural Competition, executed murals for the Museum. In 1963 his forty-foot fiberglass sculptural mural portraying the development of man in abstract and geometric symbols was unveiled in David B. Steinman Hall, City College of the City University of New York.
In addition to a number of distinguished grants, including a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 1947, Gonzalez received a great many awards for his paintings in watercolor and oils. Among these were Charles E. Dana and George Walton Dawson medals of the Philadelphia International Water Color Society competition, 1953; and gold medals from both the National Arts Club, and the New York Audubon Artists. In the Academy's annual exhibitions he won the Speyer Prize, 1958; Obrig Prize, 1962; and Cook Prize, 1980. In 1987 Columbia University conveyed on Gonzalez its Florence Brevoort Eickemeyer Award, given every five years to an artist nominated by the Academy for the recipient's lifetime achievement.
Gonzalez was also a dedicated teacher. He served on the faculties of the school of the Brooklyn (New York) Museum, and New York's Art Students League, and was artist in residence at Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 1953-54. In the mid-1940s he established his summer studio in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, and with it his own summer school. Among his other contributions to his profession were his service on the Academy Council: a three-year term as a member begun in 1967; assistant corresponding secretary, 1974 to 1979; and corresponding secretary 1979 to 1984.
