Gonzalo Fonseca

Who was Gonzalo Fonseca?

Gonzalo Fonseca was a Uruguayan artist known for his stone sculpting. He originally studied to be an architect, but discovered modern art in 1942 after working in the Taller Torres-Garcia workshop. He studied painting in the workshop until 1949, and became interested in pre-Columbian art during that time.

In 1950 he moved to Paris, and traveled through several countries in Europe. Fonseca worked in excavations run by Flinders Petrie in Egypt, Sudan, Syria, and traveled through Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Greece.

He married Elizabeth Kaplan, from New York City, in the mid-1950s and moved to Manhattan in 1958 after being awarded a Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.

He began working in New York and in Italy, near Carrara. He started working on large scale pieces mostly of marble, and recycled limestone from New York’s demolished buildings. He had few solo shows throughout his career, but several group exhibitions in which he became known for his stone sculptures of modern influenced architectural forms. He died in Italy at the age of 74 in Seravezza, Italy, in his studio.