Jorge Castillo (artist)
Jorge Castillo, Jorge José Carmelo Castillo actually Casalderrey, ( born June 16, 1933, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain ) is a Spanish painter and graphic artist ( eraser ). He is an important representative of surrealism and the Informal. He lives and works in Barcelona, New York City and Berlin.
Life and work
Jorge Castillo's family emigrated in 1934 for political reasons to Argentina. Castillo spent his childhood and youth in Buenos Aires. As a painter and draftsman, he began to work early self-taught. In 1941 he began studying at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires, but they quickly left again because he did not get along with the local school principles.
In 1948 he began an apprenticeship as a draftsman. His artistic training he undertook self-taught. He made the acquaintance of the Argentine artist Raquel Forner, a famous surrealist. The two began working together.
In 1955, Jorge Castillo returned to Spain and moved to Madrid. During this period numerous surrealistic ink drawings and gouaches. His first solo exhibition of these works he had in 1959 at the Galería Altamira in Madrid. In the early 1960s drew Castillo first to Barcelona, then lived and worked but also two years in Paris and from 1966 to 1969 in Geneva.
On January 17, 1966, came to an accident involving American nuclear weapons to the Spanish village of Palomares. This misfortune he took the opportunity for the design of a monumental triptych. With this work, he gained international attention and thus and three other plants in 1968 was invited to documenta 4 in Kassel. He received a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service and moved in 1969 to Berlin, where he lived until 1975 and worked, before returning to Barcelona.
In the early 1980s he moved to New York City. He created many monumental public works in Spain, among other things, in La Coruña, Messina and Barcelona.
Jorge Castillo is counted among the most important Spanish artists of surrealism and the Informal. His works are included in many museums and collections in Europe, South America and the USA. He participated in numerous exhibitions worldwide since 1959, including, among others, in the years 1964 and 1968, the São Paulo Biennial and the Venice Biennale. He received the award of " I. International drawing " in 1964 and awarded the art prize of the city of Darmstadt in 1975.
Literature and sources
- Exhibition catalog for Documenta IV: IV documentation. International Exhibition; Catalogue: Volume 1: ( painting and sculpture ); Volume 2: (graphics / objects ); Kassel 1968.
- Jorge Castillo: etchings; 8 June to 1 July 1973. Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover 1973. ( Catalog 5/ 1973, the Kestner-Gesellschaft. )
- Werner Haftman ( text ), Jean -Luc Daval (picture description): Jorge Castillo: watercolors, drawings. Propylaea, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin / Vienna 1975.
- Carter Ratcliff: Jorge Castillo: drawings, paintings, sculptures. Ed. Polígrafa, Barcelona; Prestel, Munich, 1987, ISBN 3-7913-0826-2. ( Translator from English: Noreen Roeder ).
- Harald Kimpel, Karin Stengel: documenta IV International Exhibition 1968 - A photographic reconstruction ( Series of the documenta - Archives); Bremen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86108-524-9.