Pablo Gargallo

Pablo Gargallo was born in Maella, Aragon, Spain, in 1881 to a wealthy and cultured family. He moved to Barcelona with his family in 1888, where he began his training in the arts. He studied at the School of Fine Arts with Carlos de Haes, a renowned landscape painter. He visited the Prado Museum frequently and copied works by Velázquez, Goya, and other masters. He also traveled extensively throughout Spain and Europe, painting landscapes and scenes of rural life. He moved to Paris in 1903 and studied with Antoine-Jean Gros, then established himself in Rome in 1913, where he became part of a group of Catalan painters associated with the Nazarene movement. He discovered Cubism in Paris and was influenced by Jacques Lipchitz and Juan Gris. He joined the Section d'Or, a Cubist art group, and developed his own style of Cubism that combined geometric forms with expressive colors and themes. He was among the first artists to work in iron. He introduced Pablo Picasso to metal sculpture. He created three-dimensional objects from pieces of flat metal plate, paper, or cardboard. Some of these sculptures have a form of cubism. For example, only one half of a face may be shown, and it may have only one eye. He also made more traditional sculptures in bronze, marble and other materials. He also collaborated with Pablo Picasso and Luis Buñuel on two surrealist films: Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) (1929) and L'Age d'Or (The Golden Age) (1930). He also wrote several articles on art history and criticism. He was an advocate of modernizing Spanish art and culture and supported young artists who shared his vision. He returned to Madrid in 1914 due to the First World War and shared a studio with some of his Parisian friends. He participated in an exhibition organized by Ramón Gómez de la Serna at the Museo de Arte Moderno in 1915. He also taught art in Salamanca for a short period, but was disappointed by the experience. He moved back to Paris in 1916, where he would spend the rest of his life. He continued to paint and exhibit his works in various galleries and salons. In 1929, together with Federico de Madrazo and the writer Eugenio de Ochoa, he founded a short-lived artistic journal called El Renacimiento (The Renaissance). Later, he was named an honorary court painter by King Alfonso XIII. He suffered from fulminating bronchial pneumonia and died in Reus, Tarragona, in 1934. His son, Enrique Gutiérrez-Cueto y Blanchard, inherited his art collection and donated it to the Prado Museum. He also became a distinguished art historian and director of the Prado Museum. Pablo Gargallo is considered one of the most significant artists of the Spanish avant-garde.