Julio González

Spanish sculptor and painter

Julio Luis Jesús González-Pellicer, better known as Julio González, was born in Barcelona into a family of Catalan goldsmiths. He learned forging in the family workshop González e Hijos during late modernism, although he wanted to become a painter. He studied at the Barcelona School of Fine Arts.

In 1900, after the closure of the family workshop, he moved with his brother Joan to Paris, where he spent most of his life. It was there that he met and became friends with Pablo Ruiz Picasso, Juan Gris and Pablo Gallego. Shortly after coming to Paris, his brother, with whom he was very close, died, which led to deep depression, making his already introverted nature even more pronounced, limiting his artistic production as well as his circle of friends.

Although painting attracted him in his beginnings as an artist, it was his knowledge of metal and forging, acquired during his childhood and adolescence in the family workshop, that led him to take up sculpture.

His early works are based on two different themes, still lifes and masks. In the still lifes certain influences of Cubism can be observed, while in the masks he was inspired by African art.

During the First World War he found work at the Renault car factory, in the autogenous welding division, and this experience was very useful for him to further refine his technique.

He held his first solo exhibition in 1922 and from 1927 onwards he focused his artistic activity on sculpture, making the most of his knowledge of iron, forging, goldsmithing and the technique of autogenous welding.

1929 was the year in which Julio González broke definitively with the cubist influence to immerse himself in the technique of abstraction.

In the 1930s he offered us his greatest and best production, in his attempts to unite matter and space, earning him his reputation as a true revolutionary in contemporary sculpture and one of the best sculptors of the first half of the 20th century.

He achieved movement in his works by assembling and casting linear elements and created a new sculptural language in which abstraction prevailed.

Turning iron into an artistic material is perhaps Julio González’s main contribution to sculpture, together with his completely innovative forms.

His work is exhibited in museums such as the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (Barcelona), the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), the IVAM in Valencia, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, etc.

He died on 27 March 1942 of a heart attack at his home in Arcueil.

Exhibited Works

• "Autorretrato", drawing on paper, 1941.