Artwork I Statement I Bio

GUSTAVO NOVOA (Chilian)

Selected works by Gustavo Novoa

The arrival	Yellow Brick Road	Soul mates	Custody
The Oracle	Checkers	Eternity	The last Unicorn

BIOGRAPHY

Gustavo Novoa is the son of a family of lawyers in Santiago, Chile.
He attended the Academy of Fine Arts, as well as, a year of law school, only to learn that structured careers were not for him. Novoa made his debut as an artist in the early 1960¹s selling watercolors and works in crayon on the streets of Paris, principally Monmartre. His first one-man show was sponsored by the Chilean Ambassador at the Maison de L¹Amerique Latin in 1961. The late Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain sponsored his second show in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1962. Showing in galleries in the Faubourg St. Honore and the Salon de la Jeune Peinture. Novoa completed his Parisian background, but by 1965, he had become an adoptive "New Yorker".

He admits to having been lured like many others by the American dream on one hand, and such movies as "West Side Story", "Breakfast at Tiffany¹s" and "The Wizard of Oz" on the other. A successful partnership with Guy Burgos and later, Lady Sarah Churchill, led to the opening of the Burgos Gallery on Manhattan¹s east side in 1965. By then, his style had evolved into textured oils that the New York Times¹ critic, Stuart Preston said "What Novoa seeks to discover in his often fanciful landscapes and still-lifes is their identity, that special something that makes them unique." By the late sixties, however, Novoa¹s subjects had changed into the gentle jungle denizens that were to be his trademark. "Bonds with reality are very hard to shake once you establish them." With this premise in mind, Novoa constructed a dream-like new jungle where the lion lies down with the zebra. Panthers and pandas share the shade with African monkeys and American raccoons.

The gently radiant colors of Novoa¹s luxuriant foliage seem to wield a mystical power, the power of bringing together both predator and prey, the meek and the strong. Opposite forces transcend the ruthless laws of nature to bring harmony to the whole. Novoa became represented exclusively by the Wally Findlay Galleries in the early 1970s, and his one-man shows in New York, Paris, Palm Beach and Beverly Hills established him as a champion of ecology and wildlife preservation. His animals were primative and painted in lush and colorful backgrounds. In 1977, the publication of his book Jungle Fables, for which he wrote the text and executed the paintings, was a collection of rhymes on "vice and virtue" that gave a new dimension to his animals, making them more anthropomorphic and philosophical. Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey commissioned him to do the poster and program for the circus that year. By 1971, Novoa¹s paintings had changed again. His show "The Grand Tour" sent his animals prowling the major cities of the world, from the Spanish Steps in Rome to the Left Bank in Paris, through the Great Pyramids and back to Park Avenue in New York. It was perhaps the most surrealistic of Novoa¹s shows. In 1986, Novoa visited Arizona and New Mexico and soon after, his jungle characters were set aside. Novoa, instead, returned to his palette knife paintings of the sixties with a new style and new subject matter showing the American influence in his new works. He depicted the Arizona desert and the Indian pueblos with haunting and surreal qualities under the heavy impasto.

He called it his "adobe" period. But, since Novoa¹s horizon then expanded beyond the jungles of his mind, his newest collection featured, beside the New Mexico theme, a group of paintings of Deco Architecture. Miami¹s Preservation League commissioned him for the cover of the program for the Art-Deco weekend and his painting "Dreamline-Streamline" became the theme of the event. His one-man show at the Steiner Gallery in Bal Harbour made him the cover story of the Miami Herald on January 14, 1988. Irene Lacher of the Herald says; "This artist puts Deco in focus, his vivid portraits of the buildings in brilliant hues that suggest a hint of motion are brightening the weekend that they gave tribute to." On April 3, 1988, Prince Charles of England set a new record for Novoa¹s sales by auctioning one of his paintings at a benefit sale in Palm Beach The Wally Findlay Galleries, in keeping with Novoa¹s jungle theme, had a one-man show of his animal paintings in Palm Beach in December 1990. On April 26, 1991, Novoa was received at the White House by Mrs. George Bush. Miami¹s Art Deco District had chosen Novoa¹s painting "The Carlyle Hotel" to be presented to the First Lady.

The painting hangs in the President¹s Library. The prestigious Gallery 1-2-3 of El Salvador introduced Novoa at their Latin American Biennale exhibition in June of 1992. The Instituto Cultural de Santiago presented an impressive one-man show in August, 1992. His first exhibition in Chile, where the press named him "Painter of a Lost Paradise". Sponsored by Avensa Airlines of Venezuela, Novoa opened his first one-man show in Caracas, with great success, at the Galeria Oscar Ascanio in June of 1993. The Wally Findlay Galleries in New York presented his latest paintings in their Summer Festival of 1996. Palette Publications of Miami, Florida recently published Paradise Found a retrospective hard cover book based on Novoa¹s work. The Wally Findlay Galleries in New York had a book signing and one-man show in July 1997. Another book signing and one-man show with the Paradise Found theme was held in the Palm Beach Findlay Galleries on January 6, 1998. Most recently, another turning point in Novoa¹s career was his exhibition "Art from Art" that opened in March, 1998 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago, Chile, with great success. Using elements from other artists ranging from Michelangelo to Picasso, but re-interpreted through his cats, Novoa has eased his way into surrealism. Wally Findlay Galleries opened in East Hampton in the summer of 1999, and Gustavo had an exhibition in that gallery in July, 1999.

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