Leopoldo Novoa

LEOPOLDO NÓVOA GARCÍA (Pontevedra, 1919 – Paris, 2012).
“Composition,” 1992.
Mixed media and collage on paper.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 21 x 21 cm; 38.5 x 37 cm (frame).

A painter and sculptor born to a Galician mother and a Uruguayan father, Leopoldo Nóvoa emigrated to Uruguay in 1938, where he became associated with Joaquín Torres García. Settling in Montevideo, where he founded the cultural magazine “Apex,” he was also a close friend of Jorge Oteiza and, once settled in Buenos Aires (1948–1957), of Lucio Fontana, who exerted a notable influence on his work. He eventually left the Americas in 1965 to settle in Paris with the support of Michel Tapié, who had been impressed by his mural at the Luis Tróccoli Stadium in Montevideo. In Paris, he met Julio Cortázar, who wrote a short story about his work. He also founded, alongside other prominent Uruguayan and Argentine painters, the Espacio Latinoamericano. However, he did not hold his first exhibition until 1964. This took place at the gallery of Edouard Loeb, with whom he would collaborate for many years. His work, which ranges from drawing and painting to murals and pyrography, abstractly evokes his memories of Galicia, using a style that references Abstract Expressionism and Informalism. Nóvoa has been honored with awards such as the Castelao Medal (1993), the City of Pontevedra Prize (1997), and the Galicia Critics’ Prize (2002). His work is currently represented in the Abanca and Caixanova collections, among others.