Julio González (sculptor)
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Julio González (21 September 1876 - 27 March 1942) was a Spanish abstract, cubist painter and sculptor.
Born in Barcelona, as a young man he worked with his older brother, Joan, in his father’s metal smith workshop. Both brothers took evening classes in art at the Escuela de Bellas Artes. In the late 1890s Julio began to visit Els Quatre Gats, a Barcelona café, where he first met Pablo Picasso. He left Spain in 1900 and moved to Paris, never to return to his homeland.
In Paris he associated with the Spanish circle of artists of Montmartre, including Pablo Gargallo, Juan Gris and Max Jacob. In 1918, he developed an interest in the artistic possibilities of welding, after learning the technique whilst working in the Renault factory at Boulogne-Billancourt. This technique would subsequently become his principal contribution to sculpture. In 1920 he renewed his acquaintance with Picasso, for whom he later provided technical assistance in executing sculptures in iron, participating to Picasso's researches on analytic cubism. He also forged the infrastructures of Constantin Brâncuşi's plasters [1]. In the winter of 1927-28, he showed Picasso how to use oxy-fuel welding and cutting [1]. From October 1928 till 1932, both men worked together — and in 1932, González was the only artist with whom Picasso shared his own personal art carnet [1]. At fifty years old, himself influenced by Picasso, González deeply changed his style, exchanging bronze for iron, and volumes for lines [1].
In 1937 he contributed to the Spanish Pavilion at the World Fair in Paris (La Monserrat, standing near Guernica), and to Cubism and Abstract Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. That same year he moved to Arcueil, near Paris, where he died in 1942.
His work can be found in several museums, such as the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, or the IVAM in Valencia.
