| Julio González | |
 Julio González, Monsieur Cactus, 1939 |
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| Born | September 21, 1876 Barcelona |
| Died | March 27, 1942 (aged 65) Arcueil |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Field | Painting, Sculpture |
| Movement | Cubism |
Juli González i Pellicer (21 September 1876 - 27 March 1942) was a Catalan (Spanish) abstract, cubist painter and sculptor.
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Biography
Born in Barcelona, as a young man he worked with his older brother, Joan, in his father’s metal smith workshop. Both brothers took evening classes in art at the Escuela de Bellas Artes. In the late 1890s Julio began to visit Els Quatre Gats, a Barcelona café, where he first met Pablo Picasso. He left Spain in 1900 and moved to Paris, never to return to his homeland.
Paris
In Paris he associated with the Spanish circle of artists of Montmartre, including Pablo Gargallo, Juan Gris and Max Jacob. In 1918, he developed an interest in the artistic possibilities of welding, after learning the technique whilst working in the Renault factory at Boulogne-Billancourt. This technique would subsequently become his principal contribution to sculpture. In 1920 he renewed his acquaintance with Picasso, for whom he later provided technical assistance in executing sculptures in iron, participating to Picasso's researches on analytic cubism. He also forged the infrastructures of Constantin Brâncuşi's plasters [1]. In the winter of 1927-28, he showed Picasso how to use oxy-fuel welding and cutting [1]. From October 1928 till 1932, both men worked together — and in 1932, González was the only artist with whom Picasso shared his own personal art carnet [1]. At fifty years old, himself, influenced by Picasso, González deeply changed his style, exchanging bronze for iron, and volumes for lines [1].
In 1937 he contributed to the Spanish Pavilion at the World Fair in Paris (La Monserrat, standing near Guernica), and to Cubism and Abstract Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. That same year he moved to Arcueil, near Paris, where he died in 1942.
Public collections
The Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington D.C.), the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the Kröller-Müller Museum (Otterlo, Netherlands), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Luís Ángel Arango Library (Bogotá, Colombia), the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art (Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes (France), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid) Museo Patio Herreriano de Valladolid (Spain), Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain), the Museum of Modern Art (New York City), the Nasher Sculpture Center (Dallas, Texas), the National Gallery of Scotland (Edinburgh), the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Venice), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pompidou Center (Paris), the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York City), and the Tate Gallery (London) are among the public collections holding work by Julio González.
References
Further Reading
- Nancy Marmer, "Julio Gonzalez: Sculpture in Iron," Art in America, November/December 1978, pp.23-24.
External links
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