Juan Genoves, 1970 Silencio, Direccion Unica, One Way Spanish Political Etching Pop Art Print, 1970

Juan Genovés Candel (Spanish, 1930-)
Painter, illustrator, and graphic printmaker engraver. He painted ‘El abrazo’ (‘the embrace’), which became an emblematic poster during the Spanish political transition. He was born in Valencia in 1930. The son of Juan Genovés Cubells, an artisan whose family was close to the labor movement. His mother Maria Candel Muñoz came from a family of practicing Catholics. In 1946 Genovés studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Carlos in Valencia and then settled in Madrid. He set up the ‘Los Siete’ group together with other artists in 1949, and the following year he travelled to Madrid, where he was influenced by the works by Fra Angélico and Hieronymus Bosch in the Prado Museum. In 1957 he had his first solo exhibitions in the gallery Alfil, Madrid and in the Museo d’Arte Moderna, Havana. He is considered the most important representative of modern Spanish painting. His images, executed in a politically engaged, critical realism, were a direct response to the fascist violence of the late Franco Regime. Recognized for an aesthetic style rooted in Social Realism and Pop art, The artist’s themes included arrests, manhunts, torture and murder scenes, with the victims confronted in an anonymous crowd with their equally faceless henchmen. He used stencils and spray guns for the hunted individuals that he portrayed in an “ants-like hustle and bustle.”
The work of the artist is represented in numerous museum collections, his work is represented by the Marlborough galleries and regularly exhibited in London, New York, Rome, Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Paris and Monaco, as well as at international art fairs. Genovés’ work is found in many of the most important public collections in the United States and Europe, including: The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, France; Galeria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy; The Museum of Modern Art, NY, The Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; IVAM, Valencia, Spain; Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium.

Exhibitions
1966 Venice Biennale
1971 Genovés. Frankfurter Kunstverein (also Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Städtische Kunsthalle, Recklinghausen)
1971 Aspetti della graphics europea , Museo d’Arte Moderna Ca ‘Pesaro, Venice Biennale
1972 Genovés , Museum Boijmans van Beuningen , Rotterdam
1983 Dreams and Nightmares , Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden , Washington
2004 El Pop España l, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente, Segovia, Spain
2008 The Hands of Art , MARTa Herford Museum of Contemporary Art

Awards National Plastic Arts Award (1984)
Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts (2005)
Gold Medal at the 6th International San Marino Biennial (1967)
Honourable Mention at the 33rd Venice Biennial (1996)
Plastic Arts Prize from the Valencian Government (2002)Highlighted works