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The Leicester Galleries Ltd
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Medium
Beaten copper, on a wooden base
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Dimensions
26.70cm high
( 10.51 inches high)
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Provenance
By descent to the artist's daughter, Roberta (Mme Hans Hartung)
Foundation Hartung, 27 March 1942 - 30 June 1999
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Literature:
P. Descargues, Julio González, Paris 1971, page 11, illustrated number 3
C. Goldsheider, Exposition Julio González au Japon, Tokyo 1975, illustrated number 2
V. Aguilera Cerni, Julio, Joan, Roberta González - Itinerario de una dinastia, Barcelona 1973, number 111, illustrated page 168
J. Merkert, Julio González, catalogue raisonné des sculptures, Milan 1987, number 5, illustrated page 21
J. Richardson, Julio González - A Retrospective Exhibition, Zurich, Art Focus Gallery, 15 March - 20 April 2002, touring to New York, Dickinson Gallery, 6 May - 28 June 2002, page 28, illustrated page 29, catalogue number 1
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Exhibition History:
Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Julio González, 1952, number 1
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Julio González, 1956, number 1, illustrated page 8
Minneapolis, The Minneapolis Institute of Art, Julio González, 1956, number 1
London, Tate Gallery, Julio González, 1970, number 9, illustrated page 9
Montpellier, Musée Fabre, Julio González, 1970-71, number 9
Frankfurt-am-Main, Stadtische Galerie im Stadelschen Kunstinstitut, Julio González 1876-1942 Plastiken, Zeichnungen, Kunstgewerbe, 1983, number 25, illustrated page 56
Berlin, Akademie der Kunste, Julio González 1876-1942, 1983, number 25
New York, Dickinson Gallery, Julio González - A Retrospective Exhibition, 6 May - 28 June 2002, page 28, illustrated page 29, catalogue number 1 (on loan)
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Description / Expertise
Julio González, one of the most important sculptors of the twentieth century, began his four-year collaboration with Picasso in 1928. The artists, lifelong friends, produced several pieces together, realised for the most part in iron. Julio González has been since crowned the father of constructed metal sculpture, precursor of the modern movement of sculptors in iron. His mission, in his own words, was to project and draw in space with new methods and without his innovative metal work, the powerful forms of David Smith and Sir Anthony Caro may well have taken a completely different course.
This unique repoussé head, delicately beaten from a single sheet of copper, has been created with a profound understanding of the traditional Spanish metalsmith’s technique. Julio González’s family had been leading goldsmiths and craftsmen in metal in Barcelona for two generations and at the age of fifteen he had been apprenticed to his father’s studio. A pensive icon which the sculptor has infused with maternal tenderness, this is a loving portrait of González’s first wife, Jeanne Berton, the mother of his only daughter Roberta. After three years of marriage, Jeanne divorced González. In 1912, left alone with his daughter, he returned home to his mother and two sisters in Barcelona.
The sensual, smooth surface of this work is very unlike the heavy textures of González’s later sculptures, which are frequently melted and corroded by the flame of his welding torch. González had learnt to use an oxyacetylene torch whilst working in the Boulogne Renault factory in the summer of 1918 and it seemed natural for him to apply the technique to his sculpture; something no sculptor before him had attempted.
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