Julio González (sculptor)
Julio González ( born September 21, 1876 in Barcelona, † March 27, 1942 in Arcueil near Paris; actually Julio Luis Jesús González- Pellicer ) was a Spanish sculptor. He is considered the inventor of the " iron sculpture" and the first " artist with a welder ." He was with his constructive idiom most important representative of the plastic in the abstract art.
Life and work
In 1891, González began an apprenticeship, together with his brother, as a goldsmith. My teacher was his own father, who ran a well-known ironwork studio in Barcelona. González took parallel to this training part in evening classes in drawing at the art school in Barcelona. In 1896, González 's father died. The family moved to Paris in 1899. In 1900, González tied there artistic contacts with Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Max Jacob, Joaquín Torres García, Pablo Gargallo and Constantin Brâncuşi. He decided for now to become a painter. In 1908, González died Brother, what plunged him into a spiritual crisis. He lived for some years very withdrawn and only kept in touch with the artists Picasso and Brancusi upright. He started his livelihood as a blacksmith earn and gave up painting altogether. In 1918, Gonzales began an apprenticeship as a welder at Renault. In this training, he learned the oxyacetylene welding.
With the acquisition of this craft ability, he began to create his first sculptures made from wrought iron. These early sculptures were human figures, which still followed the classic forms of traditional sculpture. González ' first solo exhibition included painting, sculpture, drawings, jewelry and objects found in 1922 in the gallery Povolovsky in Paris.
From the year 1923 he collaborated with Pablo Picasso. By 1928, González instructed his friend Pablo Picasso in the arts of metalworking. Pablo Picasso in turn brought Gonzalez to more abstract art, also a plurality of materials to create. In 1931, González had a joint exhibition with the Surrealists in Paris " Salon des Independants Sur- ". He was in 1930 a member of the local artists' group " Cercle et Carré " and was subsequently a member of the sequence association " Abstraction- Création ".
In 1933, González created his important sculpture The Angel and 1935, the seat end. In 1937, his sculpture La Montserrat in the Spanish pavilion at the Paris World Exhibition in part. In 1940, his famous series cactus man.
In the last years of his life, González was limited to drawing and, due to wartime material shortages, to sculpture out of plasticine and plaster.
Julio González died on 27 March 1942 in Arcueil near Paris of a heart attack.