Jorge Castillo

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Jorge Castillo , actually Jorge José Carmelo Castillo Casalderrey , (born June 16, 1933 in Pontevedra , Galicia , Spain ) is a Spanish painter and graphic artist ( etcher ). He is considered an important representative of Surrealism and Informel . He lives and works in Barcelona , New York City and Berlin .

life and work

Jorge Castillo's family emigrated to Argentina in 1934 for political reasons . Castillo spent his childhood and youth in Buenos Aires . As a painter and draftsman he began to work self-taught at an early age . In 1941 he began studying at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires , but left it quickly because he could not cope with the school principles there.

In 1948 he began training as a technical draftsman. He made his artistic training self-taught. He made the acquaintance of the Argentine artist Raquel Forner , a well-known surrealist. The two started working together.

In 1955 Jorge Castillo returned to Spain and moved to Madrid . During this time, numerous surrealist ink drawings and gouaches were created . He had his first solo exhibition with these works in 1959 at the Galería Altamira in Madrid. In the early 1960s, Castillo first moved to Barcelona, ​​but then lived and worked in Paris for two years and in Geneva from 1966 to 1969 .

On January 17, 1966, there was an accident involving American nuclear weapons over the Spanish village of Palomares . He took this misfortune as an opportunity to design a monumental triptych . With this work he gained international attention and was invited, along with three other works, to the 4th documenta in Kassel in 1968 . He received a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service and moved to Berlin in 1969 , where he lived and worked until 1975 before returning to Barcelona.

In the early 1980s he went to New York City. He created numerous monumental public works in Spain, including in La Coruña , Messina and Barcelona.

Jorge Castillo is counted among the most important Spanish artists of Surrealism and Informel. His works are included in numerous museums and collections in Europe, South America and the USA. Since 1959 he has participated in numerous exhibitions around the world, including the São Paulo Biennale and the Venice Biennale in 1964 and 1968 . He received the prize of the " I. International of Drawing " in 1964 and in 1975 the art prize of the city of Darmstadt .

Literature and Sources

  • Exhibition catalog for the IV. Documenta: IV. Documenta. International exhibition ; Catalog: Volume 1: (Painting and Sculpture); Volume 2: (Graphics / Objects); Kassel 1968.
  • Jorge Castillo: Etchings; June 8 to July 1, 1973. Kestner Society, Hanover 1973. ( Catalog 5/1973 of the Kestner Society. )
  • Werner Haftmann (text), Jean-Luc Daval (description): Jorge Castillo: watercolors, drawings. Propylaea, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin / Vienna 1975.
  • Carter Ratcliff : Jorge Castillo: drawings, paintings, sculptures. Ed. Polígrafa, Barcelona; Prestel, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-7913-0826-2 . (Translator from English: Noreen Roeder).
  • Harald Kimpel, Karin Stengel: documenta IV 1968 international exhibition - A photographic reconstruction (series of publications from the documenta archive); Bremen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86108-524-9 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Castillo, Jorge
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Castillo Casalderrey, Jorge José Carmelo (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish painter and printmaker
DATE OF BIRTH June 16, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Pontevedra , Galicia, Spain