Julio Gonzalez (1876-1942) - Lot 114

Lot 114
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Estimation :
60000 - 80000 EUR
Julio Gonzalez (1876-1942) - Lot 114
Julio Gonzalez (1876-1942) Mask of an adolescent, 1929-1930 Bronze proof, no. 1/8 Lost wax casting Claude Valsuani, March 1970 Signed: "GONZALEZ ©". 31 x 17 x 3.5 cm Provenance: Galerie de France, Paris French private collection, acquired in 1987 In the family goldsmiths' workshop in Barcelona, Gonzalez learned to work metals while studying drawing and painting at the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1900, the Gonzalez family moved to Paris and Julio reunited with his friend Picasso whom he had met in Barcelona. He became friends with Manolo, Maurice Raynal and Max Jacob. After the death of his brother, he gradually gave up painting and executed his first sculptures in embossed metal. Despite the material difficulties he encountered, he continued his plastic research with the support of Picasso, Gargallo and Despiau. It was not until 1927 that he devoted himself entirely to sculpture and executed a series of cut-out masks. Metal is a material that he knows well and that he can easily obtain. The collaboration with Picasso and the learning of welding from Gargallo around 1927-1928 was decisive. Masque d'adolescent was born in this creative context and participated in the upheaval that sculpture was experiencing at the time by radically reversing the relationship between solids and voids, between volume and space. The metal plate is worked like a sheet of paper in the space where the void proceeds to the drawing. The features of the face are reduced to simple lines that force the synthetic character of the sculpture. "For this whole generation of sculptors, the passage from the face to the mask marks a break. Breaks with Rodin, with the model, psychology, modeling [...]." 1 This Mask of an Adolescent is a bronze casting made from the original in iron, kept at the IVAM (Institut Valencià d'Art Modern), in Valencia, Spain. It was made in 1970 by Roberta Gonzalez, his daughter, in collaboration with the Galerie de France, which has supported the artist's work for over forty years. In order to disseminate the work of her father, who remained within an intimate circle of insiders - his surrealist and cubist friends - Roberta Gonzalez published a few models whose transposition into bronze preserved all the plastic values of the iron originals, as part of a traveling exhibition: Gonzalez, the materials of her expression. A list of the models published in bronze accompanies the catalog, the Masque d'adolescent being listed under the number 58 2. By loyalty, Roberta Gonzalez solicits Claude Valsuani, the founder with whom Gonzalez had already had the opportunity to work during his lifetime. Numbered 1 of 8, this print dates from March 1970. It is among the first six prints supervised by Roberta with Valsuani, the following prints having been made later by the Godard foundry. It was sold in 1987 by the Galerie de France to a private individual, who kept it until very recently. 1 Brigitte Léal, Masques de Carpeaux à Picasso, cat. exp. exhibition, Paris, Musée d'Orsay (21 October 2008 - 1 February 2009); Darmstadt, Institut Ma- thildenhöhe (8 March - 7 June 2009); Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (August - October 2009), Paris, Hazan, Musée d'Orsay, 2008, p.211. 2 Julio Gonzalez: the materials of his expression, vol. I, exhibition catalogue, Paris: Galerie de France (1970), Paris, Edition Galerie de France, 1970, n°58. Related literature - Pierre Descargues, Gonzalez, sculptor of iron, xxe siècle, n°35, December 1970, p.151. - Julio Gonzalez: the materials of his expression, cat. exp. Paris, Galerie de France (1970), Paris, Edition Galerie de France, 1970, n°58, vol.II - Donacion Gonzalez, Ayuntamiento de Bar- celona, Museo de Arte Moderno, Barcelona, El Ayuntamiento, 1974, n°18 (bronze MAM, Barcelona, not reproduced). - Josette Gibert, Catalogue raisonné des dessins de Julio Gonzalez, volume 8 : Pro- jets pour sculptures, figures, Paris, Editions Carmen Martinez, 1975. - Jörn Merkert (ed.), Julio Gonzalez, cata- logue raisonné des sculptures, Milan, Electa, 1987, n°106, p. 89 (iron reproduced) - Julio Gonzalez in the IVAM collection, cat. exp. Paris, Fondation Dina Vier- ny-musée Maillol (Paris, November 17, 2004-February 21, 2005), Paris, Hazan, Valencia, Ins- titut Valenciá d'art modern, 2004, p.47 (iron reproduced). - Mercè Doñate, Julio Gonzalez retrospec- tiva, cat. exp. Barcelona, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (October 25, 2008 - January 25, 2009); Madrid, Museu Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, (March 10 - June 1, 2009), Barcelona, MNAC, Museu Nacio- nal d'Art de Catalunya; Madrid, MNCARS, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2008, no. 101, p.80 (bronze MAM, Barcelona reproduced). - Tomàs Llorens Serra, Julio González, Catálogo general
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