Julio González

Previously included in the “From Miró to Barceló. A Century of Spanish Art” exhibition, these works by Catalan sculptor Julio González (1876-1942) come from the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris. Alongside the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM), the Centre Pompidou indeed keeps the largest collection of sculptures and drawings by the artist, mainly acquired through the donations and bequest from his daughter, Roberta González, between 1953 and 1978.

The exhibition reveals the main periods of a career focused from the beginning on metalwork, with the classicising nudes and figurative portraits in repoussé copper of the 1910s and 1920s, or the cut-out reliefs and the first sculptures in forged and welded iron. These prepared the way for his large schematic works in iron of the 1930s, when he developed the concept of “drawing in space” that he explored during his collaboration with Pablo Picasso between 1928 and 1932.

The preparatory drawings on display around the sculptures show the technical process and formal diversity of the linear metal sculptures, such as Femme se coiffant I [Woman Combing her Hair I] (1931) and L’Ange, L’Insecte, La Danseuse [The Angel, The Insect, The Dancer] (1935), and the dynamic energy of his metamorphic, lyrical figures of the late 1930s.

Echoing the first pastel Autoportrait [Self-Portrait] of 1914-1918, the final self-portraits he drew and engraved testify to the strong, ascetic personality of Julio González, considered to be the father of 20th century iron sculpture.