San Vicente de Alcántara (Badajoz) 1905 - Madrid 1982
By:
Julián Gállego Serrano, María José Alonso
Godofredo Ortega Muñoz moved to Salamanca at an early age and then to Madrid to pursue a career as a painter. In his student days he would often go to the Casón del Buen Retiro, where he would copy the works of the great masters, especially Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Goya and Francisco de Zurbarán. Then he began to paint outdoors. He travelled to Paris, where Francisco Bores, Benjamín Palencia, Pancho Cossío, Hernando Viñes, Salvador Dalí and Julio González were already living, and expressed an interest in the works of Paul Cézanne and Vicent van Gogh. He travelled around Europe with Hungarian actor Henrik Domahidy before settling in Italy in 1930, on the banks of Lake Maggiore. There, he created a style of landscape painting that he would define fully on his return to Spain in 1935, when a major exhibition of his work was staged at the Círculo de Bellas Artes. In that same year, he took part in the Venice Biennale. He returned to Spain for good in 1939, living in Madrid and Extremadura. He took part in the Alexandria Biennial of 1947, the Hispano-American Art Biennial of 1952 and the Hispano-American Biennial in Havana in 1954, where he obtained the Grand Prix. The Barcelona Biennial of 1956 dedicated a Gallery of Honour to him, as did the Venice Biennale of 1958 and the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1968. His work is typical of Spanish painting prior to the avant-garde movement of the late 1950s and the 1960s. A major exhibition was staged at the Casón del Buen Retiro in Madrid twelve years before his death. Since the turn of the 21st century there has been great interest in his work. In 2007 the Museum of Cáceres showed 'Palabras para una pintura del silencio. Teoría del paisaje en la obra de Ortega Muñoz' ["Words for painting silence. Theory of landscape in the works of Ortega Muñoz'], a look back at his work that featured documents from his personal archives. In 2009 the César Manrique Foundation staged 'El Mar Absoluto. Ortega Muñoz y Lanzarote' ['The Absolute Sea. Ortega Muñoz and Lanzarote'] and in 2017 the Mariano Mesonada – Museo Orús Cultural Centre brought together his works for an exhibition entitled 'La luz de Utebo en la pintura de Godofredo Ortega Muñoz' ['The Light of Utebo in the Paintings of Godofredo Ortega Muñoz'] (Utebo, Zaragoza).
Godofredo Ortega Muñoz moved to Salamanca at an early age and then to Madrid to pursue a career as a painter. In his student days he would often go to the Casón del Buen Retiro, where he would copy the works of the great masters, especially Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Goya and Francisco de Zurbarán. Then he began to paint outdoors. He travelled to Paris, where Francisco Bores, Benjamín Palencia, Pancho Cossío, Hernando Viñes, Salvador Dalí and Julio González were already living, and expressed an interest in the works of Paul Cézanne and Vicent van Gogh. He travelled around Europe with Hungarian actor Henrik Domahidy before settling in Italy in 1930, on the banks of Lake Maggiore. There, he created a style of landscape painting that he would define fully on his return to Spain in 1935, when a major exhibition of his work was staged at the Círculo de Bellas Artes. In that same year, he took part in the Venice Biennale. He returned to Spain for good in 1939, living in Madrid and Extremadura. He took part in the Alexandria Biennial of 1947, the Hispano-American Art Biennial of 1952 and the Hispano-American Biennial in Havana in 1954, where he obtained the Grand Prix. The Barcelona Biennial of 1956 dedicated a Gallery of Honour to him, as did the Venice Biennale of 1958 and the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1968. His work is typical of Spanish painting prior to the avant-garde movement of the late 1950s and the 1960s. A major exhibition was staged at the Casón del Buen Retiro in Madrid twelve years before his death. Since the turn of the 21st century there has been great interest in his work. In 2007 the Museum of Cáceres showed 'Palabras para una pintura del silencio. Teoría del paisaje en la obra de Ortega Muñoz' ["Words for painting silence. Theory of landscape in the works of Ortega Muñoz'], a look back at his work that featured documents from his personal archives. In 2009 the César Manrique Foundation staged 'El Mar Absoluto. Ortega Muñoz y Lanzarote' ['The Absolute Sea. Ortega Muñoz and Lanzarote'] and in 2017 the Mariano Mesonada – Museo Orús Cultural Centre brought together his works for an exhibition entitled 'La luz de Utebo en la pintura de Godofredo Ortega Muñoz' ['The Light of Utebo in the Paintings of Godofredo Ortega Muñoz'] (Utebo, Zaragoza).