JULIO GONZALEZ

"Julio González, 'traditionalist and classicist' amongst pioneers of the twentieth-century European avant-garde, is regarded as the founder of modern sculpture in iron. The lines of development in his oeuvre lead from the figurative to the abstract, with a recurrent, visible recourse to the classical form of expression. González's figures mark the border between the abstract and representation; in them, constructivist and surreal elements combine. The panoramic development vista is complemented by drawings. Completed in relation to specific sculptures, some take up and vary their language of form; while the artist's individual use of colour raises a large proportion of the works on paper beyond the significance of a sculptor's working drawings alone. González came out of a tradition of Catalan metalworking. Both his father and grandfather were masters of the aft; González's own work began as a gold and silversmith in his father's workshop. His activity as an artist metalworker led him to painting. From 1926, he devoted himself entirely to sculpture. When, in 1927, he turned to making sculptures out of iron, he had turned fifty; so it was on the threshold of his late work that he found his quintessential, unmistakable voice through his forged and soldered iron assemblages....To speak of González' filigree works as 'drawing in space' is no exaggeration. His sculptural work stands between Cubism and Surrealism, between abstract art Ultimatelym. Ultimatley, it articulates a notion of art in which the human figure is perceived."--book jacket.