Julio de Diego
The Book of Ah!
1969

Name: The Book of Ah!
Brand: Julio de Diego
Price: 3500 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

String bound booklet (portfolio) with six hand colored woodcuts, signed in pencil by the artist, tipped in the book Provenance: Estate of the artist By descent to his daughter Kiriki Metzo Julio de Diego (1900-1979) Julio de Diego (1900-1979) was born on May 9, 1900 in Madrid, Spain. De Diego began his artist career at the early age of 15, apprenticing as a scene painter in the theater and holding his first exhibition at a local gambling casino. In 1922, the artist moved to Paris, where he became familiar with modernism’s forays into abstraction, surrealism, and cubism. In 1924, de Diego then moved to the United States, settling in Chicago two years later. His "Chicago" period is his most notable. 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. De Diego continued to travel and develop his artistic vocabulary in the Americas. While in Mexico, de Diego made a living designing costumes and scenery for ballets. His talents continued to expand as he moved into book illustration. His work in jewelry making was also incorporated into the 1946 Modern Handmade Jewelry exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. In 1948, he married Gypsy Rose Lee with whom he joined the traveling carnival Royal American Shows. While Gypsy worked as a performer, de Diego developed a show for the carnival using surrealist murals and the performance of Freudian themes. The couple later divorced in Reno, Nevada, and de Diego eventually settled in California. In California de Diego’s continued to impact the world of fine art as he produced interpretive representations of current events in an assortment of techniques. He notably worked in the Renaissance method of “velatura,” building up to as many as forty glazes of oil in each painting. He also commonly worked within gouache, graphite, and mixed media. The themes of his work were as broad in scope as the mediums he worked in, moving from surrealist and folk compositions to self-portraits and politically engaged subjects. During his time spent working for the Works Progress Administration, de Diego also produced murals of landscapes and street scenes. His paintings of current and historical subjects became constructions both of the artist’s opinion of the facts and his vision of alternate realities. During these years he also became a teacher and took up positions at the University of Denver and the Artist Equity Workshop. De Diego ultimately settled in the artists’ colony of Sarasota, Florida, in the late sixties and remained there until his death.

Creator:

Julio de Diego (1900-1979, American)

Creation Year:

1969

Dimensions:

Height: 12.75 in (32.39 cm)Width: 10 in (25.4 cm)

Medium:

Woodcut

Movement & Style:

American Modern

Period:

1960-1969

Condition:

Gallery Location:

Fairlawn, OH

Reference Number:

Seller: FA84961stDibs: LU14014493802

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Julio de Diego

Julio De Diego was one of the most colorful artists to work in Chicago. Born in Madrid in 1900, he left home at the age of 15 to apprentice as a scene painter for theatres. After service in the Spanish army, including six months fighting in North Africa, Diego traveled to Paris and Rome to study art. He also appeared as an extra in Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes. He emigrated to the United States in 1924. He lived in New York for two years, then went to Chicago, where he remained until 1942. At first, he earned a living as a magazine illustrator, decorative painter and graphic designer. By the early 1930s, Diego began to show regularly at the Art Institute of Chicago, appearing at thirty-two annual exhibitions of Chicago Artists, American artists and watercolorists, between 1931–47. He was employed by the easel division of the Illinois Art Project during the mid-1930s. He traveled to Mexico for the first time in 1939, becoming close friends with Carlos Mérida. Diego was deeply affected by the Spanish Civil War, and many of his works reflect the conflict that presaged the Second World War. Meditation over Inexplicable Logic seems to be a kind of preparation for his self-portrait in the Art Institute’s collection, titled The Perplexity of What To Do (1940). Both feature isolated, brooding figures lost in their inability to respond to events. He left Chicago in 1942 but continued to exhibit his work at major institutions. In 1946, Life magazine’s article described him spending time “cooking aromatic Spanish dishes and reading works of Spanish mystical philosophers and poets. He smokes cigarettes incessantly and dresses flamboyantly, affecting cerise mufflers and jangling bracelets.” Diego gained more notoriety in 1948 when he married the great burlesque artist, Gypsy Rose Lee. After their separation and divorce in the mid-1950s, he lived for a time in New York at the Chelsea Hotel, a haunt of artists, musicians and poets. Diego settled in Sarasota, Florida in 1967, near former friends from Chicago, where he died in 1979. Daniel Schulman References “Julio De Diego: He Paints Weird War and Peace.” Life Magazine, March 11, 1946. De Diego, Julio. Pamphlet File P-07866. Ryerson Library, Art Institute of Chicago.