JULIO GONZÁLEZ | Études de têtes

Carmen Martinez & Viviane Grimminger, Paris
Acquired from the above by the present owner in early 1990

Josette Gibert, Julio González, Dessins, projets pour sculptures: figures, Paris, 1975, n.n., illustrated p. 151

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down, hinged to the mount at the upper two corners and floating in the mount. The lower and right edges are deckled. There are some handling marks to the edges, probably predominantly studio. The sheet is lightly time stained. Otherwise this work is in very good original condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Julio Gonzalez’ art reveals an acute understanding of form to achieve a multi-faceted rendition of an object in space, whether in wrought iron, bronze, or on paper. Trained as a craftsman in Barcelona in the late nineteenth century in his father’s workshop, in 1896, upon the death of his father, Gonzalez moved to Paris to a house in Montparnasse with his brother and two sisters. It was there that he encountered a fervent artistic community of bohemian artists and formed close friendships with the fellow Spaniards Pablo Gargallo, Manolo, and Pablo Picasso. Gonzalez worked as an assistant in Brancusi’s studio in 1925-26 and in 1928 Picasso enlisted him to help in the production of metal sculptures. This influenced both artists vision into the possibilities of modern sculpture, and marked Gonzalez’s status as a sculptor, firming his lifelong interest in welded iron. Gonzalez’s inventiveness was further captured in drawing form, a medium he grew closer to during the Second World War. This exceptional group of Gonzalez works, offered over the next eight lots, focusses on his output from the 1930s-40s – a period of deep political and emotional turmoil – and stand as superb exemplars of the artist’s capacity to transform feeling into form.