Gironella, Alberto (1929–1999)
Gironella, Alberto (1929–1999)
Alberto Gironella (b. 26 September 1929; d. 2 August 1999), Mexican painter and illustrator. Born in Mexico City, Gironella considered himself a self-taught artist. He was a very talented draftsman and sensitive colorist. In 1959 he received a prize in the Paris Biennial of young painters. Since that time, his work has appeared in many individual and group exhibitions in the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Japan. His most noted individual shows have been at the Galería Prisse in Mexico City (1959), the offices of the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C. (1959), the Galería Juan Martín in Mexico City (1963, 1964, 1968, 1977, and 1979), the Sala Nacional of the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City (1972), and the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City (1977). Gironella tempered crude naturalism with formal elements derived from Spanish painters, resulting in sarcastic reinterpretations of seventeenth-century court life. He also drew on familiar figures in Mexican folk art, such as the skeleton. The last exhibition of his career was held in Seville, Spain, in 1992.
See alsoArt: The Twentieth Century; Mexico City.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Driben, Lelia; Alberto Gironella; and F. Calvo Serraller. Alberto Gironella. Mexico City: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 2001.
BÉlgica RodrÍguez