Julio Girona Fernández

Renowned Cuban painter, sculptor, caricaturist, draftsman and engraver. National Prize for Plastic Arts.

Girona was born in Manzanillo, Granma. From a very young age he began drawing caricatures. In 1927 he held his first personal exhibition, sponsored by the Manzanillo Literary Group, made up of caricatures of politicians, writers and popular figures from that city, in the display windows of the La Fortuna store in his hometown.

Subsequently he traveled to Havana in the company of Conrado Massaguer, where he met members of the Minorista Group and other important intellectuals of the capital. The Social magazine published some of his caricatures at that time.

From 1928 onwards he resided in Havana and took preparatory studies at the Institute of Secondary Education. He entered the San Alejandro Academy in 1930, and in 1934 he completed his training in the workshop of professor Juan José Sicre. During those years he published some caricatures in the Karicato magazine.

In April 1934 he held a personal exhibition at the College of Architects in Havana in which he exhibited drawings, sculptures and direct carvings. The opening remarks on that occasion were given by distinguished Cuban intellectual Juan Marinello.

The Department of Education shortly thereafter granted him a scholarship for one and a half years of study in Europe. He traveled to France and later moved to Berlin where he studied sculpture with Ernesto di Fiori. He returned to France and extended his stay at the Ranson academy until the summer of 1937, when he traveled to the United States and settled in New York, where he continued making sculptures. There he eventually collaborated with the Clay Club gallery and worked as a draftsman and political caricaturist for the antifascist newspaper La Voz. He also collaborated with New Masses, a publication of American communists, in the Gotham News and other Hungarian and Portuguese newspapers in New York. His caricatures were also reproduced in newspapers in Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Cuba, as well as in numerous European countries. For his outstanding work as an antifascist draftsman he was named Guest of Honor of the Congress of American Artists.

He returned to Cuba in 1939 and worked as a political draftsman for the newspaper Hoy, organ of the Socialist Popular Party. At the end of December of that year he exhibited a collection of sculptures, watercolors and drawings at the Lyceum in Havana.

He traveled to Mexico in 1940 attracted by its vigorous political, social and artistic movement. He settled in Mexico City and exhibited alongside members of the Taller de Gráfica Popular directed by Leopoldo Méndez. Through efforts by writer José Antonio Fernández de Castro, then cultural attaché at the Cuban Embassy in that country, and a group of Mexican intellectuals and artists, he obtained another scholarship from the Cuban government to study in the United States.

He initially resided in New York, where he worked as an employee in a cardboard box and mannequin factory, taught Spanish classes and also worked as a museum guide. There he irregularly attended the Art Students League, where he made some lithographs.

Around 1943 he settled in Brooklyn after marrying Ilse Erythropel, also a plastic artist of German origin. Later, in the midst of World War II, he decided to volunteer in the American army to participate in the fight against fascism.

From these experiences came his collection of ink drawings War Notes, a rich gallery of characters related to the drama of war. These Notes made in France and Belgium between 1944 and 1945 constituted an authentic plastic testimony of historical character, revealing the impact and social significance of such a tragic war. In them one observes the influences of Pablo Picasso, especially in his blue period, but also of Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and Paul Cézanne. Present too are elements from his training as a caricaturist: the sobriety of color limited to the use of black and white, the austerity of line, the neutrality of backgrounds and the economy of expressive resources.

Once the war ended, he returned to Brooklyn and began working as a Spanish translator of texts for comics in the United Press and King Features agencies, a job he continued to perform until his retirement 38 years later.

After abandoning sculpture due to illness, he began painting in 1946. His first figurative oils and gouaches stood out for their colorfulness and apparent naiveté. Titles such as The Cat on the Carpet, The Cow and the Calf and The Table with Bottle belong to that initial stage filled with elements of our daily reality.

Between 1950 and 1951 he created his first abstract paintings. He enrolled at the Art Students League of New York, benefiting from the Rooseveltian program that paid for studies for war veterans. There he frequently attended classes by Morris Louis Kantor, a notable abstract painter of the era, under whose influence many of the painters of the so-called American Abstract Expressionism School were also trained. His insertion into this profession was reinforced by his incorporation into the Tenth Street group in New York, a club animated by art critic Harold Rosenberg. In this New York context his first personal exhibition took place at the Artist's Gallery in 1953. Works immersed in this abstract spirit, such as Spell, Indian Magic, Primitive Sacrifice, Procession and Prehistoric Forms were seen in Cuba in 1954.

He exhibited at the Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York in 1956, and from then on this prestigious exhibition center regularly hosted his work. Similarly, his work was appreciated in important museums and galleries in other American and European cities, whether in personal or collective exhibitions, alongside artists of the caliber of Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning and Robert Rauschenberg, among others. His oil painting Phantasmagoria won the Purchase Prize at the VIII National Salon of Painting and Sculpture in Havana in 1956.

He traveled to Cuba in 1957 and created murals in the Medical Retirement building (now Ministry of Public Health). His work Conflict received the Purchase Prize at the Work by New Jersey Artist exhibition, held at the Newark Museum, New Jersey, in 1958.

In April 1963 he received an invitation from the Werkkunstschule in Krefeld, former Federal Republic of Germany, to teach for two years in its Graphics Department, where he also exhibited a collection of abstract gouaches and oils. During that period he traveled through Holland, Belgium, Austria, France, Spain and Italy.

Around 1965 he returned to the United States and began creating a series of collages with papers, cardboards, fabrics, woods and metal elements. With one of them he obtained the Purchase Prize within the Art from New Jersey/1967 exhibition. He remained without painting for approximately three years, following the death of his wife in October of 1967. From then on his trips to Cuba became much more frequent.

After destroying, dissatisfied with their results, a group of figurative works conceived in the first five years of the seventies; he resumed his cycle of exhibitions in March 1975 by opening the exhibition Julio Girona: oils, watercolors and drawings 1953/75, at the gallery of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC). The catalog text was written by Félix Pita Rodríguez.

Toward the end of that same decade he was invited by Cuba's Ministry of Culture to teach drawing at the Institute of Higher Art (ISA).

Series such as Testimony, Variations, calligraphies, Visions or Sphinxes of War were the subject of attention in successive personal exhibitions within the national context. He participated in 1984 in the I Havana Biennial in a collective exhibition and was part of the honor selection that under the title Latin American Exhibition was displayed in the second edition of that event. From the nineties onwards he settled permanently in Cuba.

His foray into literature was also noteworthy. In 1990 Cuban Letters Publishing published his book Six Hours and More, an interesting testimony in which he recounted his experiences as a volunteer in the United States Army during World War II and for which he received the Critics' Prize awarded by the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC). Other titles by his hand include: Untitled Memoirs (1994), Coffee Facing the Sea (2000), Pages from My Diary (2005) and the poetry collections Baroque Music (1992) and The Red Tie (1996).

The National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana organized two major retrospectives of his work: Julio Girona: works from 1940 to 1986 in 1986 and Julio Girona: a personal history in 2009. In 1991 he was awarded the distinction for National Culture and in 1996 the State Council of the Republic of Cuba conferred on him the Alejo Carpentier medal. In 1998 he received the National Prize for Plastic Arts awarded by Cuba's National Council of Plastic Arts.

His extensive plastic work constitutes a case of exceptional vitality within the history of Cuban art because he always kept a door open for the search for new aesthetic solutions.

His work was characterized by continuous mobility between abstraction and figuration, which represented a key moment within contemporary national art, for its sustained formal quality and growing spirit of stylistic renewal.

Girona died on December 24, 2002 in Havana.

Curriculum

1927 Together with Massaguer he travels to Havana, meets members of the Minorista Group and other important intellectuals. He is introduced at a conference of the Hispanic-Cuban Institution of Culture. The Social magazine publishes his caricatures.
1930 Enters San Alejandro. Student of Sicre in sculpture. When the San Alejandro Academy is closed by Machado, he continues his studies in Sicre's workshop until 1934.
1934 Publishes caricatures in the Karicato magazine, directed by Ramón Arroyo Cisneros (Arroyito). Personal exhibition of direct carvings, drawings and sculptures at the College of Architects in Havana. Obtains scholarship from the Department of Education to study one and a half years in Europe.
1934 Travels to France, later to Berlin, studies sculpture for three months with Ernesto di Fiore. Returns to France and enters the Ranson Academy in Paris, sponsored by sculptor Aristides Maillol. Studies sculpture with Charles Alexandre Malfray. Extends his stay at the Ranson Academy until 1937.
1937 Settles in New York, USA. Occasional assistant at the Clay Club gallery. Works as a draftsman and with political caricatures in different publications in different countries. "Guest of Honor" of the Congress of American Artists for his outstanding work as an antifascist draftsman.
1939 In Cuba at the end of April. Political draftsman for the newspaper "Hoy" (of the Socialist Popular Party, communist). Exhibits sculptures, watercolors and drawings at the Lyceum.
1940 Participates in the Taller de Gráfica Popular in Mexico City, alongside important Mexican artists. Exhibits with members of the Workshop in Mexico and later in Cuba, and with Cuban engraver and draftsman Jorge Rigol. Works as assistant to David Alfaro Siqueiros in the creation of a mural. Participates in the free sculpture school, directed by Guillermo Ruiz. Obtains a scholarship from the Cuban government to study in the United States.
1941 Resides in the U.S. Creates lithographs at the Art Students League, which he attends irregularly.
1943 Resides in Brooklyn. Returns to Brooklyn after the war. Abandons sculpture due to eye illness and dedicates himself permanently to painting. Travels to Havana, participates in numerous collective exhibitions in Cuba, Mexico, Argentina and the United States.
1948 Exhibits at the Lyceum in Havana, a personal exhibition of oils, gouaches and figurative drawings.
1950 Resides in New Jersey. Enters the Art League of New York. Student of Morris Kantor. Between this year and the next he creates his first abstract oil paintings.
1954 Personal exhibition at the Artist's Gallery in New York in February. Travels to Havana and exhibits at the law and social sciences hall of the university. Participates in the Anti-biennial, Contemporary Cuban Exhibition Homage to José Martí.
1956 Exhibits regularly at the Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York, and in important museums and galleries in the U.S. and Europe, in personal exhibitions and alongside painters of American "abstract expressionism". His work Phantasmagoria wins the Purchase Prize at the VIII National Salon of Painting and Sculpture, Palace of Fine Arts, Havana.
1957 Participates in important collective exhibitions in the U.S., including: Collage in America, collage international from Picasso to the present and American paintings 1945-1957.
1958 His oil Conflict wins the Purchase Prize at the Work by New Jersey Artists Exhibition, held at Newark Museum. Exhibits a personal exhibition at the Color-Luz gallery in Havana.
1959 Personal exhibitions at the Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York and at the Arts Club in Chicago. Accompanies his exhibitions in Hannover and Kassel, FRG.
1961 Participates in collective exhibition in salute to the First National Congress of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC), at the Palace of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba.
1963 to 65 Teaches engraving techniques for two years in the graphics department of the Werkkunstschule. Exhibits a personal exhibition of oils and gouaches at this same institution. Travels through Switzerland, Austria, Yugoslavia, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain and Italy. Exhibits collective exhibitions in the U.S., figurative-expressionist oils.
1965 to 67 Returns to New Jersey. Creates collages using papers, cardboards, fabrics, woods and metal elements that he exhibits in collective exhibitions in the U.S. One of these collages wins the Purchase Prize at the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, N.J.
1968 From this year onwards he travels to Cuba every year.
1978 to 79 Teaches drawing at the Institute of Higher Art, Cuba. Exhibits a personal exhibition of drawings, oils and watercolors on paper at the Casa de Cultura de Plaza in Havana.
1980 Calligraphies, an exhibition of a series of abstract inks and crayons at the Casa de Cultura de Plaza, from January to May.
1981 to 83 Creates testimonies, a series of figurative works in ink, and abstract oils and drawings.
1983 to 84 Exhibits in Cuba "Gardener of Scribbles", oils and drawings, at the Galería Habana. At the Plaza Vieja Gallery, presents Sphinxes of War. Creates a screen print at the Screen Printing Workshop of the Cuban Fund for Cultural Assets and that institution acquires a collection of oils and drawings by the artist.
1984 Participates in the I Havana Biennial with three abstract oils: Telephone Conversation, Nos. 1, 2 and 3.
1986 Invited to participate in the II Havana Biennial.

Collective Exhibitions

1954 Contemporary Plastics, Havana.
1956 Gallery L´ Etoile Scellèe; Galerie Suzanne de Connink. Salon de la Jeune Sculpture, Paris.
1957 Hommage de la Sculpture a Brancusi; Galerie Suzanne de Connink. Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. Realites Nouvelles, Paris.
1959 Cinq Jeunes Sculpteurs de L´Ecole de París. International Surrealism Exhibition, Galerie Daniel Cordier. Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. Realites Nouvelles. Salon de Mai, Paris.
1960 Cent Sculpteurs de Daumier a nos Jours, Musee de Saint Etienne. Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. Realites Nouvelles. Salon de Mai, Paris.
1961 Contemporary Cuban Art. Gallerie du Dragon. Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. Realites Nouvelles. Salon de Mai, Paris. International Surrealism Exhibition. D´Arcy Gallery, New York.
1962 Hannover Gallery, London. Sculpteurs d´Aujourd´hui. Galeríe Blumenthal, Paris. L´Object. Musée des Arts Décoratifs; A Half Century of Sculpture; Gallery du Cercle. Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. Realites Nouvelles. Salon de Mai, Paris. Exhibition of Latin American Art. Musèe National d´Art Moderne, Paris.
1963 Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. Realites Nouvelles. Salon de Mai, Paris. Exhibition of Latin American Art. Musèe National d´Art Moderne, Paris.
1964 Montparnasse haute. Margarete Lauter Gallery, Mannheim. Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. Realites Nouvelles. Salon de Mai, Paris. Exhibition of Latin American Art; Musèe National d´Art Moderne, Paris.
1965 International Biennial, Tokyo. Sculpture Biennial, Antwerp. Babel 65, Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris. International Surrealism Exhibition. Galerie de l´Oeil. Le Main, Galerie Claude Bernard. Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. Realites Nouvelles. Salon de Mai, Paris. Exhibition of Latin American Art. Musèe National d´Art Moderne, Paris.
1966 A Sculptor and Nine Cuban Painters. Galerie Saint Germain. Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. Salon de Mai, Paris. School of Paris, Frankfurt.
1967 Biennale de Carrara, Italy. The Garden of Sculpture, Relais de Vaux-de-Cernag-Yvelines. Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. Salon de Mai, Paris.
1968 Surrealistic Exhibition "Princip slati", Czechoslovakia. Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. Salon de Mai, Paris.
1969 Biennale de Carrara, Avignon, Italy. Festival Biennale de Sculpture, Antwerp. Depois Rodin. Musée de Saint-Germain-en Laye. Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. Salon de Mai, Paris.
1970 Sculpture in the City, Rouen. Sculpture in the Open Air, Macon, Visione 24, Rome. Eighth Biennial, Menton. Surrealism? Modern Museum, Stockholm. Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. Salon de Mai, Paris.
1971 Gallery of Fine Arts, Bourdeaux Latin American Art in Scandinavia. Oslo Museum. International Exhibition of Surrealism, Cologne. 7 Latin American Artists. Galerie du Dragon. Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. Salon de Mai, Paris.
1976 Forms in Space. Theo Gallery, Madrid.
1980 Collective Exhibition, Japan.
1985 FIAC, Paris. Homage to Alicia Penalba. Tarbes, France.
1986 International Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture. Colliouer, France.
1987 Yorkshire Open Air Museum, England.
1988 Around Edouard Glissant. Galerie du Dragon, Paris.
1989 Salon de Mars, Paris. Sculpture, Carrara and Pietrasanta, Italy; Durban Gallery, Caracas.
1990 Salon de Mars, Paris. J.G.M. Gallery, Paris. Figuration, Fabulation. Museum of Fine Arts, Caracas, Venezuela.
1992 J.G.M. Gallery, Paris
1993 IAM, Miami.
1996 The Magic of Volume. Casa de las Américas, Havana.

Sited Works

1961 Places work at the Monumental Sculpture Symposium, Austria.
1962 Places work at the Monumental Sculpture Symposium, Israel.
1963 Places work at the Monumental Sculpture Symposium, Japan.
1964 Places work at the Monumental Sculpture Symposium, Canada.
1967 Work in stone at C.E.S. Auxerre, Yonne.
1968 Work in Bronze at the Lycée Technique, Redon, Ile-Et-Velaine.
1969 Places stone work at C.E.S. Les Minguettes, Venissieux, Rhone and University Ensemble in Saint Denis, Seine-St.Denis.
1972 Places work at the Lycée Classique, Moderne et Technique, Creutzwald, Moselle.
1979 Places work at C.E.S. Noget Sur Marne, Val de Marne.
1987 Places work at the Monumental Sculpture Symposium, Seoul, South Korea.

Awards
1955 Obtains scholarship for studies in Paris.
1961 Sculpture Prize at the Paris Biennial.
1995 National Prize for Plastic Arts, Havana.

Source: En Caribe.org