The sculptures on display in this room, Seated Woman and Daphne, both date from the mid-1930s. Once again, they are by Julio González, the painter and sculptor we initially saw being seduced by the Noucentista movement, and whose evolution as an artist can be seen in these two works.
In 1937, he finished his best-known work, “La Montserrat”, which is currently on display in a museum in Amsterdam. You can see a version of this work here, with the title, or Mask of Montserrat Screaming. It is a metal mask of a contorted face screaming. It was produced in 1937, five years before the artist’s death.
La Montserrat was the symbolic figure of a Catalan peasant woman which became an symbol of protest in a time of political totalitarianism.
The figure of Daphne, an elongated shape from which a number of curved metal shafts are protruding, conveys a similar feel to the abstract style of the 1930s Avant-garde. The skilful crafting of the fine iron bars, which seem to outline the sculpture in the air, are faithful reminders of the artist’s early training. The family goldsmith’s business, and his father’s occasional sculpture work, encouraged Julio Gonzalez to explore this field in order to find a means of expression.
Gonzalez worked with Picasso, who did not know how to work metal, and he learnt from him the potential of what, today might be described as artistic recycling - the use of waste materials to make sculptures.
Gonzalez’s work was on display alongside Picasso’s Guernica in the Spanish Pavilion, at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. You can see a scale model of the pavilion here in the Museum.
(c) (R) 2012, MUSMon com S.L.
The Reina Sofia MUSMon.com audioguide makes a better visit to the "Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia" (MNCARS). It is an independent production from the museum. It offers 67 minutes of two voices narrations with 43 explanations of works, authors and artistic trends.
It comes with 65 photographs, and museum plans. It also includes the full text transcriptions of voiceover, technical data and several organized itineraries. +info