User:Marcialgodoyopazo

Marcial Godoy Opazo (1933 - 1997)

= Biography =

Marcial Godoy Opazo was born in Valparaiso, Chile in 1933. He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Santiago, Chile and at the University of Chile where he studied architecture. His teachers included renowned Chilean masters Nemesio Antunez, Jorge Letelier and Pablo Burchard.

Godoy Opazo left Chile in 1969 with an invitation to his first art show in Venezuela. After several successful art shows in Chile, he had built a reputation among art lovers and gained respect from his peers. He also founded art schools in Santiago for underserved youth.

He settled in Caracas in 1969 where he lived for over 20 years and became a Venezuelan citizen. Godoy Opazo continued to show his art in America and Europe. Through his work, he took the viewer on a journey of forms that gradually dissolved at their borders and emerged with the explosive colors of his unique inspirations.

In 1972 Jose Gomez-Sicre introduced Godoy Opazo to US audiences along with many of the most well known Latin American artists such as Alejandro Obregon, Roberto Matta and Fernando de Szyszlo. Gomez-Sicre was founder and director in 1976 of the Art Museum of the Americas at the Organization of the American States. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_Gómez-Sicre

“Last year the paintings of Marcial Godoy were exhibited for the first time in this area at Interamerican Development Bank. The current show consists of 30 paintings executed within recent months in Godoy’s second in Washington. Chile is the country of extraordinary beauty, especially to the painter’s eye. With its curious elongated shape, the country is bordered on one side by the Pacific Ocean and on the other by the Andes Mountains, with deep valleys between. Godoy renders the characteristics of the landscape with a great sense for synthesis of the elements and a feeling for brilliant color.”  Jose Gomez-Sicre, Chief – Visual Art and Crafts Organization of American States, Washington, D.C. 1972.

Godoy Opazo studied the cultures of Ancient America. In 1980 he was appointed Cultural Advisor of the Department of Zulia in Venezuela where he was a fervent advocate for the preservation of the Wayuu people’s culture in the Guajira Peninsula. He founded an arts school for the indigenous people in the region.

In Venezuela Godoy Opazo became well known for his oil portraits. He painted numerous individuals, politicians, artists, presidents and prominent members of society.

In 1989 Godoy Opazo traveled to Canada, where the Venezuelan Ambassador in Ottawa introduced Godoy’s art:  “We are very pleased to present Marcial Godoy Opazo, a Venezuelan artist of extraordinary sensibility…His artistic creation rooted in Venezuela, from our cities to the fertile land of raw beauty, from the interpretation of everyday life, to reach a universal message with a historic flavor…He is in an effort to describe his art as a restless brush in search of expressions that fill with light some of the darkest paths of America. His latest inspiration of that American sentiment in Venezuelan land comes from deep within his heart, like rivers stream down from mountains.”

Godoy Opazo moved to Los Angeles, California in 1990 where he joined an international artistic community. In 1991 he was commissioned to create a mural that depicted the city of Los Angeles multicultural heritage. Adolfo V. Nodal, director of the Cultural Affairs Department in Los Angeles, CA presented Godoy with a Los Angeles City Certificate of Appreciation for his contribution to the arts and the advancement of Latino Culture in the US:  “Marcial Godoy Opazo’s art brings something deeper and most significant. It is a vehicle to reach the inner-self. His grasp of the artistic transcends to give a selective vision of great pictorial beauty. His work shows a tendency toward figurative, based in cubist and geometrical shape with colors that are bold, remaining pure to his impressionistic drive, yet diverting from it by emphasizing structure and the constant dialogue between light and shadow, captivating the viewer in each humanistic message.”

Awards

Gold Medal National Hall of Chile 1957 – Ossandon Award

National Institute of Fine Arts, Santiago, Chile.

Salon Viña del Mar 1957

Salon Universitario – Premio de Honor

Salon Municipal de Valparaíso

Marcial had over 100 one-man shows. His work was exhibited in galleries around the world.In collective art exhibitions, Godoy’s art was shown with works by Francisco Zuñiga, Roberto Matta, Nicky Imber, Rufino Tamayo, Antonio Lopez Saenz, Jorge Durón, Jose Luis Cuevas, Claudio Bravo, Maximino Javier, Armando Morales, Alejandro Obregón, Fernando Botero and David Alfaro Siqueiros among many other great Latin American artists.

Individual and collective exhibitions

Sociedad Nacional de Bellas Artes Chile

Sala del Banco de Chile

Museo de Bellas Artes, Valparaíso Chile

Ministerio de Educación, chile

Salon Universidad de Chile

Universidad de Concepción, chile

Universidad de Valdivia, chile

Universidad Del norte, Chile

Sala Bonino Buenos Aires, Argentina

Salón Municipal de Mendoza, argentina

Sociedad Nacional de Bellas Artes Lima, Perú

Sala Matarazo Sao Paolo, Brazil

Sociedad Nacional de Bellas Artes, Brazil

Casa de la Cultura, Quito, Ecuador

Galería Cárdenas, Ciudad de México

Galería Michelena, Caracas, Venezuela

The Heritage Gallery, Solvang, California

Municipal Gallery Aquila, Abruzo Italia

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, Washington

Galería Pyramide, Washington

Galería Sorolla, Maracaibo Venezuela

Galería Pura Mileto, Maracaibo, Venezuela

Galería del Parque Francesco Di Marco, Maracaibo, Venezuela

OEA (Organización de los Estados Americanos) Washington

Salón CEPAL, ONU (Naciones Unidas) Nueva York

Universidad de Washington

Universidad de Riverside, California

Galería Ferreti Pisa, Italia

Galería Gevix Paris, Francia

Galería Hartman, Berlín Alemania

Cámara de Comercio de Caracas, Venezuela

Galería Michelena, Caracas Venezuela

Galería Dyansen, Beverly Hills, California

Galería The Embassy, Miami, Florida

Galería Hubbard, Santa Barbara, California

“Images of the Americas”, UCLA Melnitz Hall, Los Angeles, California

Lankershim Art Center, Los Angeles, California

Museo de Arte, Santa Monica, California

Private collections in Venezuela

Dr. Hugo Espinetti

Raul Sarikian

Bidalba de Valladares

Sra. Lilia de González Gómez

Edgar Pissani

Edmundo Karam

Amado García Rivas

Cesar Hernández

Rosela de Pérez Lazo

Familia Núñez Pérez Lazo

Ramón Emeri

Félix Blassini

Dr. Darío Pissani

Elio Nahim

Pedro Tinoco

Rafael Farias

Jesús Acevedo

External Links

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-08-16-ca-760-story.html

http://museum.oas.org/exhibitions/exhibitions_past_1970s.html

http://marcialgodoyopazo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/MGO.Mural2_.jpg