JULIO GONZALEZ (1876-1942)

Lot 50
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Estimation :
6000 - 8000 EUR
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Result : 7 552EUR
JULIO GONZALEZ (1876-1942)
Character with White Sheet, 1942 Ink and wash on paper, signed with initials and dated 15-3-42 top left 17 x 10 cm Provenance: Private collection, Paris. Exhibition: Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Turin, 1967, Cat N°102, reproduced page 81 Bibliography: "Julio Gonzalez" Projects for figure sculptures by Josette Gilbert, Éditions Carmen Martinez, Adrien Maeght, Paris 1975, reproduced page 181 Born in Barcelona, Julio González learned the rudiments of the metal sculpting trade from his father, who was a goldsmith, along with his older brother Joan. They both attended the Barcelona School of Fine Arts and had some success with their decorative wrought iron work. When his family moved to Paris in 1900, Julio met up with Picasso and became familiar with the group of friends who surrounded Picasso. He attended the same Salons where he exhibited large pastels that showed the influence of Degas and Puvis de Chavannes. He began to execute a few masks in embossed metal when the death of his brother Joan in 1908 threw him into deep material and moral disarray and made him abandon his artistic career for almost twenty years. Working in the Renault factories in 1917, he learned autogenous welding, a technique he would apply to sculpture ten years later. During this long period of doubt, he hesitated for a long time between painting and sculpture before finally opting for the latter. Between 1926 and 1929, he produced a series of sculptures in wrought iron as well as masks and still lifes in cut iron. In the first works, the pieces of metal were riveted together and then welded. González introduced Picasso, who employed him as an assistant, to this technique. During the thirties, his style evolved and his figures became more and more abstract. González showed a great interest in space: "To project and draw in space with new means, to take advantage of this space and to build with it as if it were a newly acquired material, that is my whole attempt.
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