Manuel De La Cruz Gonzalez Lujan

Vocation

Costa Rican painter and writer, known for his paintings of abstract art, one of the first artists to introduce contemporary art in their country. He received the Achilles J. Echeverría National Painting Prize in 1963 and the National Prize of Culture Magon, the highest award of the Costa Rican culture in 1981. In 1961 he was one of the founders of Group Eight, also composed of five painters ( Rafael Angel Garcia, Harold Fonseca, Luis Daell, César Valverde Vega and Guillermo Jimenez Saenz) and two sculptors (Nestor Zeledon Guzman and Hernán González Gutiérrez). Most of its members had been trained abroad, so the Eight Group was instrumental in the launch of national art, revolutionizing the Costa Rican plastic with the introduction of abstract art, thus breaking with the classical art that prevailed during this time. Two years later, he was awarded the National Prize for Painting. In 1964, with Carlos Moya, Rafael Fernandez and Claudio Carazo, he formed the Workshop Group, which then Teresa Porras, Sonia Romero and Jose Luis Lopez Carmona joined Escarré. These artists participated in numerous exhibitions both in Costa Rica and abroad. In 1971, during the First Central American Painting Biennial, he exhibited his abstractionist paintings, contacting, for the first time, the Costa Rican public with contemporary art. Between 1972 and 1973 he was professor of the School of Architecture of the University of Costa Rica. In 1981 he was awarded the Magon Award, the highest honor awarded by the Ministry of Culture and Youth of Costa Rica. He made numerous solo and group exhibitions in Costa Rica, Cuba, Venezuela and the United States between 1935 and 1986. He died in his hometown on 22 September 1986. Link to Wikipedia biography (Spanish)