Page 28 - Studio International - December 1970

The sculpture of

Gonzalez

William Tucker

THE FIRST OF THESE PIECES WAS COMMISSIONED of craft procedures to the traditional materials In any event, the active contact with Picasso
BY THE TATE GALLERY AS AN INTRODUCTION TO of sculpture, thus in effect creating a new both stimulated Gonzalez and gave him the
THE CATALOGUE OF THE RECENT GONZALEZ order of physical objects; while Picasso's confidence he so urgently needed: the reassur-
EXHIBITION; IT WAS NOT USED AT THE REQUEST cubist constructions in 1912-15 demonstrated ance that the historic distinction between
OF THE ARTIST'S AGENTS, WHO ASSERTED THAT that sculpture could take its subject, structure, `art' and 'craft' in sculpture which had come
IT DID NOT PRESENT A TRUE PICTURE OF THE and material from the world of things. The near to destroying him as an artist had now
SCULPTOR OR HIS WORK. THE SECOND ESSAY IS A way was prepared for Gonzalez, unique lost its meaning— that what had seemed a sign
REVIEW OF THE TATE EXHIBITION COMMISSIONED among modern artists as a trained and practis- of inferiority now conferred a remarkable
BY THE New York Times, BUT NOT PUBLISHED ON ing maker of things. It is Picasso who is advantage. The decade from 1930 was to see
THE GROUNDS THAT IT WAS TOO TECHNICAL FOR generally credited with specifically introduc- the sudden flowering of a sensitive, indepen-
THEIR READERS. THE FIRST PIECE WAS WRITTEN ing Gonzalez to the possibilities of constructed dent and original talent in a surprisingly wide
IN JUNE THIS YEAR, THE SECOND IN SEPTEMBER; metal sculpture by asking for his technical and varied exploration of the possibilities of
BOTH ARE PRINTED WITHOUT ALTERATION IN assistance in welding the celebrated series of metal construction.
THE FORM IN WHICH THEY WERE ORIGINALLY metal sculptures of 1928-31. But Gonzalez Gonzalez was a radical through circumstance
SUBMITTED. (FIGURES IN PARENTHESES REFER TO had already returned to creative activity with rather than deliberate intent. In comparison
THE NUMBERING OF SCULPTURES IN THE TATE the sheet-iron sculptures of 1926 onward. with the other great masters of modern sculp-
CATALOGUE.) While Picasso's liberated conception of what ture he seems to have been almost without
could be done in metal was crucial to Gon- ambition. His diffidence and modesty, his lack
Julio Gonzalez was born in Barcelona in 1876, zalez's development, it is quite possible that it of confidence in the nature of his own gift,
the son and grandson of metal workers and was Gonzalez's own recent work that had make him in retrospect a sympathetic figure;
jewellers. With his elder brother Joan, he was initially suggested the use of iron to Picasso. but one should remember that this lack of
apprenticed in the family craft; together also ambition cost him dear in practical terms :
they studied painting at the School of Fine throughout his most productive period he
Arts and frequented the avant-garde milieu of barely scraped a living from sales. Iron was
Barcelona in the 90s where they met the the favoured material not only for the quali-
young Picasso. When the entire Gonzalez ties he was singularly placed to exploit, but
family moved to Paris in 1900, Julio renewed because it cost almost nothing from scrap.
this acquaintance. He was making his living, Still the victim of circumstance even when he
and had gained some reputation, as a crafts- had found his way in art, the pressure of
man in metal but at this period of his life his poverty forced him to extract every possibility
aspiration as an artist centred on painting, in of expression from the material in a minor
which his talent was no more than ordinary. mode; to preclude for the most part the con-
The aestheticism and sentimentality of his scious making of monuments or masterpieces.
early work signifies more than the influence of `Drawing in space' is the conventional sum-
Picasso; Gonzalez seems to have been pulled mary of Gonzalez's contribution to modern
not only between the restriction of his trade, sculpture; and usually connotes the assembly
from which he could earn a steady living, and in 3 dimensions of linear elements, as for
the spiritual freedom enjoyed by the Bohem- example in the Large Maternity (34) and the
ian circle around Picasso, but between the Woman Combing her Hair (65)1 in the Tate
physical satisfaction to be gained from his exhibition; the transposition of line drawing
craft, where his talent was real, and the into sculpture. In this particular area the
emotional refuge provided by painting. The obvious precursor is Picasso, notably the Con-
crisis was precipitated by the death of Joan in struction in Wire of 1930. What is peculiar to
1908: his elder brother had clearly given his Gonzalez, and the index of his now unique
own life a sense of purpose which Gonzalez position in modern sculpture, is the ident-
was unable to maintain alone. He withdrew cation of drawing with making. The seed of
from the avant garde and for the next 18 years Picasso's original cubist constructions in wood
appears to have done little work with which bore fruit in steel in the hands of Gonzalez:
he was satisfied. Of his artist friends he con- not only the assembly part by part, but the
tinued to see only Picasso and Brancusi. previous and separate shaping of parts — bar-
He thus missed the development of Cubism forged, drawn or bent, sheet-rolled, cut or
entirely; but these two friendships were to folded, volumes made by the enclosure of the
prove of great importance when he eventually void; the components thus made, joined at
discovered himself in the late 20s. For Picasso points or edges, and situated in relation to
and Brancusi were the artists most notably gravity in ways inaccessible to the traditional
responsible for the revolution in sculpture materials of sculpture. The action of the
which occurred between 1909 and 1915. sculptor's tools becomes the form of the end
Brancusi applied the simplicity and rationality material: the tensile potential of steel 'as it