Painter, muralist and teacher · 1911-1993
Painter, muralist and teacher
Jesús González Arencibia, known as Jesús Arencibia, was one of Gran Canaria's leading twentieth-century painters and muralists. His work ranged across landscape, religious imagery, popular figures and Canarian social experience, with a lasting presence in public spaces and institutions on the island.
He was born in Tamaraceite on 15 November 1911. He received lessons from Lía Tavío, became closely linked to the Luján Pérez School early on and first exhibited in 1934. After the interruption of the war, he received a Gran Canaria Island Council grant to study painting at Madrid's Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando between 1942 and 1947.
On returning he developed intensive teaching work at the Las Palmas Teacher Training School, where he taught drawing until 1981, while consolidating easel and mural painting. His murals for churches and civic buildings, including the Gran Canaria Island Council's Assembly Hall, made monumental painting essential to his career.
His language evolved from landscape and regionalist references towards figurative work of strong expressive intensity. In his later years he produced Colón y los olvidados, a series of 86 canvases linked to the quincentenary. He became a full RACBA member in 1986 and left extensive work in public collections.
