Guillermo Muñoz Vera

Concepción (Chile), 1956.

Introduced by his elder brother to painting and drawing, in 1973 he entered the Fine Arts Faculty of the University of Chile, but General Pinochet’s military coup made him return to his hometown for a period. He took advantage of this time to study anatomical drawing, teaching himself using books and observing bodies at the autopsy room in the Medicine Faculty. He completed his studies in 1978 with a thesis entitled "Luz, visión y materia" (Light, vision and Matter), concerning the nature of light and the vision of colours.

His professor who tutored him in painting techniques, Muñoz Vera, assembled a small group of students interested in realism, a current that was treated with disdain by the prevailing conceptualism of the time. His work gradually rid itself of the fantastic symbology of his adolescence and his preferred themes of the future began to emerge: interiors and urban scenes. During those years he received the following prizes: gold medal from the catholic University at the II International Art Biennial in Valparaíso in 1975, and third prize in drawing and engraving at the University of Chile’s first National Painting Tournament in 1976.

In the mid-sixties he received his first portrait commissions and began to teach drawing. In 1977, he received his first official commission, a retable for a small chapel representing the Virgin Mary and Saint John. To gain inspiration from religious iconography, the Chilean artist researched the works of early Flemish painters.

His first individual exhibition was held in Santiago de Chile in 1979, and entitled "Trabajos de oficio" (Trades). He then travelled to Madrid to complete his academic training, attending drawing and anatomy classes at the Fine Arts Faculty, and sessions with models at the Fine Arts Circle. He studied Art history and travelled throughout Europe, visiting cities and museums in France, Holland and Belgium.

He began painting on the streets of Madrid old motifs such as doorways, building fronts and city views. In 1986, he held his first two individual exhibitions in Madrid, Ayer-Madrid-Ahora (Yesterday-Madrid-Now) at the Madrid Assembly and Grifé & Escoda gallery. A year later one of his paintings was auctioned for the first time in Sotheby’s of New York and he also held an individual exhibition at the Für Realismus gallery in Frankfurt.

His emphatic realism has close ties with the photographic vision of the frame and loyal translation of the scene, sometimes leading his work to be adjudged closer to hyperrealism. His work Composición con explosivos (Composition with Explosives) created for the UEE Collection in 2001 fits into this line of interpretation. In the absence of a central theme, he shows day-to-day life as it is, distancing himself from sentimentalism or picturesque and anecdotic details. His still lifes and landscapes are always simple visual descriptions.

The collective exhibitions entitled "Tierra de nadie" (No Man’s Land), in 1992 at Centro Cultural de la Villa, and "Realismos" (Realisms), in 1994 at Centro Cultural Conde Duque, both in Madrid, gained him recognition as one of the leading painters in the realist movement in Spain. In 1996, he began contributing to the Gary Nader Gallery in the United States and held his first individual exhibition in that country.

In 1989 he set up a studio in Morata de Tajuña (Madrid) where he and other artists worked in areas such as engraving, painting, theatre, design and framing. In 1994, he founded Fundación Arauco to foment painting creativity, and in 1997 he moved the Foundation to Chinchón (Madrid), where he continues to work and to create.

Always closely tied to his Chile of birth, he first exhibited there in 1998, and in 2003 his donated two works to the Presidential Palacio de la Moneda to commemorate thirty years since the death of President Salvador Allende. In 2004 he returned to Chile for a long visit, and obtained great success with his exhibitions and with a number of official commissions.

2002 Guillermo Muñoz Vera Composition with Explosives Oil and acrylic on canvas glued to board 150 x 100 cm.