Juan Ismael

JUAN ISMAEL (La Oliva, 1907-Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1982).
"Crucifixion", 1993.
Watercolor on paper.
Signed and dated in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 34 x 22 cm; 56 x 48 cm (frame).
Ismael Ernesto González Mora, known as Juan Ismael, was an outstanding painter and poet of the Canary surrealism. Trained at art schools in Tenerife and Las Palmas, he began his career in the 1920s and was linked to intellectual and artistic circles such as Gaceta de Arte and the ADLAN group. His work evolved from oneiric and symbolic surrealism towards abstraction and chromatic symbolism, influenced by Dalí, Maruja Mallo and Tanguy.
After the Civil War, he was condemned for alleged Masonic affiliation and exiled to the Canary Islands. In Madrid, he maintained links with Postism and later founded the group Pintores Canarios Independientes. He also worked as a teacher, set designer and art critic. In the 1950s he was part of the LADAC group, emigrated to Venezuela, and later returned to the Canary Islands, where he continued to create and teach.
His work is characterized by silent atmospheres, imaginary landscapes and a plastic language that evolved towards an abstraction with autochthonous elements. He published poetry and left a literary production that was compiled after his death. The Juan Ismael Art Center was created in his honor in Puerto del Rosario.