Julio de Diego

Lords of the Sky oil painting by Julio De Diego

Circa 1950

Julio De Diego’s Atomic Series paintings made an extraordinary statement regarding the shock and fear that accompanied the dawn of the nuclear age. In the artist’s own words, “Scientists were working secretly to develop formidable powers taken from the mysterious depths of the earth - with the power to make the earth useless! Then, the EXPLOSION! . . . we entered the Atomic Age, and from there the neo-Atomic war begins. Explosions fell everywhere and man kept on fighting, discovering he could fight without flesh.” To execute these works, De Diego developed a technique of using tempera underpainting before applying layer upon layer of pigmented oil glazes. The result is paintings with surfaces which were described as “bonelike” in quality. The forms seem to float freely, creating a three-dimensional visual effect. In the 1954 book The Modern Renaissance in American Art, author Ralph Pearson summarizes the series as “a fantastic interpretation of a weighty theme. Perhaps it is well to let fantasy and irony appear to lighten the devastating impact. By inverse action, they may in fact increase its weight.” Bibliography Art in America, April 1951, p.78 About this artists: Julio De Diego crafted a formidable persona within the artistic developments and political struggles of his time. The artist characterized his own work as “lyrical,” explaining, “through the years, the surrealists, the social-conscious painters and the others tried to adopt me, but I went my own way, good, bad or indifferent.” [1] His independence manifested early in life when de Diego left his parent’s home in Madrid, Spain, in adolescence following his father’s attempts to curtail his artistic aspirations. At the age of fifteen he held his first exhibition, set up within a gambling casino. He managed to acquire an apprenticeship in a studio producing scenery for Madrid’s operas, but moved from behind the curtains to the stage, trying his hand at acting and performing as an extra in the Ballet Russes’ Petrouchka with Nijinsky. He spent several years in the Spanish army, including a six-month stretch in the Rif War of 1920 in Northern Africa. His artistic career pushed ahead as he set off for Paris and became familiar with modernism’s forays into abstraction, surrealism, and cubism. The artist arrived in the U.S. in 1924 and settled in Chicago two years later. He established himself with a commission for the decoration of two chapels in St. Gregory’s Church. He also worked in fashion illustration, designed magazine covers and developed a popular laundry bag for the Hotel Sherman. De Diego began exhibiting through the Art Institute of Chicago in 1929, and participated in the annual Chicago Artists Exhibitions, Annual American Exhibitions, and International Water Color Exhibitions. He held a solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in the summer of 1935. Though the artist’s career was advancing, his family life had deteriorated. In 1932 his first marriage dissolved, and the couple’s young daughter Kiriki was sent to live with friend Paul Hoffman. De Diego continued to develop his artistic vocabulary with a growing interest in Mexican art. He traveled throughout the country acquainting himself with the works of muralists such as Carlos Merida, and also began a collection of small native artifacts...

The artwork measures 18" x 24", and the frame 25" x 29.5" x 1.75". Upon request a video clip of this work may be provided. About this artist: Julio De Diego crafted a formidable per...

Diego Barboza - 1945-2003 Hand signed and dated 1988 Oil on Canvas Diego Barboza was born the Carabobo street of Maracaibo, Venezuela on February 4, 1945. He was a Venezuelan Neo Figurative Painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in Venezuelan art history. Diego Barboza opened a new chapter in Latin America, beyond the surreal or the magical realism of the Modern Latin American Masters. He created a new language of dislocation and transgression. Personages became distorted to the point that was very exaggerated forms His figures twisted and contorted without losing their presence or their pull. Extremities muscles, and bones burst into an explosive compound of divergent and convergent lines. Through eruptive brushstrokes and fractured outlines. Barboza created a world of illusions. Barboza was born into a upper-middle-class family. He stopped going to school at 12 years old, and he registered himself at the School of Visual Art in the City of Maracaibo Venezuela. Barboza studied at the School of Visual Arts in Caracas, Venezuela. Barboza began his training as an artist at age 12 in his native Maracaibo when he left formal education to enroll in the then School of Plastic Arts of Zulia, then Julio Arraga School of Plastic Arts, where he was a student in the modeling, collage and Drawing of Angelina Curiel. His first collages, in the sixties, show the influence of American Pop Art. In 1967 he exhibited at the Ateneo de Caracas his series 'Los Ratones', a proposal then 'criticized by critics as unprecedented in Venezuela'. In his tribute to the film "Nosferatu" Friedrich Murnau included 32 drawings as well as two-dimensional objects. In 1968 he moved to London where he studied at the London College of Printing. From that time is his '30 Girls with Nets', an action in which 30 students of the London College of Printing, dressed in black and covered by white nets, toured London public places, behaving naturally. His 'street expressions', which he later called 'poetic actions', symbolized a breakdown of social restraints through unusual behaviors that sought to provoke public reactions. Upon his return to Venezuela in 1973, Barboza continues with this line of work, being recognized as one of the initiators of Venezuelan conceptual art. In the 1980's Diego Barboza turned to painting, the New Venezuelan Figuration. Here belongings and the feminine figure fill the work of that time, in which he embodied his intimacy and daily life through scenes of furnishings and flowers that included objects from his workshop and home. His nudes were made from live model, then to follow the path of distortion resulting in their unmistakable females: a figure that represented their personal way of appreciating beauty. Barboza presented his first individual exhibition at the Centro de Bellas Artes of Maracaibo Venezuela. In 1963, he traveled to London when the Conceptual Art movement started, he had the support of the London New Art Lab Gallery. On March 7, 1970 Barboza displayed his first work on Conceptual Art, which he called Art of Action. In London with the performance of 30 Girls with nets (30 Muchachas con redes). His second work was Nets and Hats in markets and restaurants (Con sombreros y redes en mercados y restaurantes). In London UK. His third The Centerpiece (El Ciempies) and the fourth Expression on a laundry-mat (Expresiones en una lavandería) In 1974. Baboza returned to Venezuela. Where he presented two very important Conceptual Art works: The Armadillo Box (La Caja del Cachicamo) and from the School of Athens to the New School of Caracas (De la Escuela de Atenas a la Nueva Escuela de Caracas). Closing his cycle of Conceptual Art creation. IN Venezuela a sort of impromptu academy started up at Claudio Perna’s house. Eugenio Espinoza, Roberto Obregón, Antonieta Sosa, Alfred Wenemoser, Yeni and Nan, Sigfredo Chacón, Diego Barboza, Luis Villamizar, Margherita D’Amico, Pedro Terán, Alfredo del Mónaco, as well as international figures who happened to be visiting Venezuela such as Antoni Muntadas, Charlotte Moorman, and Roman Polanski would gather there. Venezuela, especially Caracas, was a rich field of action for modernism in South America. Venezuelan Geometric Abstraction, Op art and Kinetic Art dominated through crucial figures like Jesús Rafael Soto, Gego, Alejandro Otero, and Carlos Cruz Diez, the country’s kinetic art made a fundamental contribution internationally. The Greater London Arts Association and the Arts Council of Great Britain did several exhibitions of (North, Central, South, London, Wales, Scotland and Ulster) to show the actual Visual Arts in all of the United Kingdom and Diego Barboza was invited for this event with a solo exhibition, expressions around a cylinder (Expresiones alrededor de un cilindro). Diego has made numerous solo and group exhibitions, obtaining rewards since 1963. He is represented in the most important museums of Venezuela, as well as in England, Brazil, Colombia and Cuba. In 1986 he was awarded the Municipal Visual Arts Award of the Municipal Council of the Federal District and in 1997 he received the National Prize for Plastic Arts granted by the National Council of Culture, CONAC. Select Group Exhibitions 1964 Ateneo de Caracas, Caracas, Venezuela 1965 Salón Arturo Michelena, Valencia, Venezuela 1968 Salón Oficial Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela 1971 Art Spectrum London, London, Great Britain 1972 Serpentine Gallery, London, Great Britain 1973 Midland Group Gallery, London, Great Britain 1974 Galería BANAP, Caracas, Venezuela 1975 Casa de Las Américas, La Habana, Cuba Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas Galería de Arte Nuevo, Buenos Aires, Argentina 1976 Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogotá, Colombia Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Sao Paulo, Brazil Museo de la Tertulia, Cali, Colombia Bienal de Venecia, Venecia, Italy 1979 Centro de Artes y Comunicación, Buenos Aires, Argentina 1980 Galería NBC, Memphis, Tennessee, USA 1981 Galería de Arte Nacional, Caracas, Venezuela Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Medellín, Colombia Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela 1986 Museo de Arte La Rinconada, Caracas, Venezuela 1989 Galería Venzor, Chicago, Illinois, USA 1990 Museo Bellas Artes, Santiago de Chile, Chile 1992 Ambrosino Gallery, Coral Gables, Florida, USA 1993 Museo de Arte de Petare, Caracas, Venezuela Centro de Arte Lia Bermúdez, Maracaibo, Venezuela 1994 Galería Namia Mondolfi, Caracas, Venezuela 1995 Galería Art Nouveau, Maracaibo, Venezuela Galería Cesar Sassòn, Caracas, Venezuela Maremares Resort, Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela Galería Durban, Caracas, Venezuela Galería Odalys, Caracas, Venezuela 1996 Centro de Arte Grupo Li, Caracas, Venezuela Galería Uno, Caracas, Venezuela Centro Cultural Consolidado, Caracas, Venezuela Espacios Unión, Caracas, Venezuela Hebraica, Caracas, Venezuela 1997 Sociedad Dramática, Maracaibo, Venezuela, Venezuela CELARG, Caracas, Venezuela Galería Ocre Arte, Caracas, Venezuela Museo de Arte Contemporáneo , Maracay, Venezuela Galería Medicci, Caracas, Venezuela Awards 1963 Premio Estímulo - IX Salón d’Empaire, Maracaibo, Venezuela 1964 Premio José Ortìn Rodríguez - X Salón d’Empaire, Maracaibo, Venezuela 1965 Primer Premio de Dibujo - III Salón Pez Dorado, Caracas, Venezuela 1968 Premio Henrique Otero Vizcarrondo - XXIV Salón Oficial Anual de Arte Venezolano Museo de Bellas Artes, 1973 Premio Emilio Boggio...

This stunning abstract by Julio Aguilera is sure to make a lasting impression in any home, business, or office. The elaborate colors, textured finish, a...