Eduardo Arroyo

Eduardo Arroyo - WALDORF ASTORIA

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Artist Biography: Eduardo ArroyoMadrid, 1937 - 2018He is considered one of the main representatives of narrative figuration, a trend in which he stands out for the important political and social criticism reflected in his works. After finishing his journalism studies in 1957 he went to Paris, where he came into contact with the Spanish exiles from the Civil War, which increased his political opposition to Franco's regime, reflected in his early works. During these years he developed a very critical Theme , not only towards the events of his environment, but also towards the most prominent names of the cultural avant-garde, such as Duchamp and Miró. He lived in the French capital during the 60's and 70's and there he began to exhibit his work. His first solo exhibition in 1961 at the Claude Levin Gallery consisted of a series of portraits of military and ecclesiastical figures. His style at this time was a critical figuration derived from Pop Art with iconographic elements that combined the demystification of art with political denunciation, together with Dadaist and superrealist influences, and his political stance meant that his work was hardly known in Spain. In 1963, his exhibition at the Biosca Gallery in Madrid of a series of portraits of the dictators Hitler, Franco, Mussolini and Salazar (now in the Reina Sofia Museum), was censored. Once democracy arrived, and at the same time that his figure was discovered, he also received recognition, with awards such as the National Prize for Plastic Arts in 1982, the retrospective exhibition at the Georges Pompidou Center that same year, or the Reina Sofia Museum in 1998.Multifaceted artist (more than 2.He was a versatile artist (more than 2,000 works created throughout his life), passionate about boxing (he left a library with more than 4,000 titles on this sport), writer, designer of musical and theatrical scenographies (for works by Wagner, Enrique Granados, Verdi, Brecht, Fernando Arrabal or Calderón de la Barca) and posters, and illustrator of literary works such as The Bible or Don Quixote. His work has been exhibited in institutions such as the Prado Museum and is part of the collections of the main contemporary art museums in Spain (Bellas Artes in Bilbao, IVAM in Valencia, MACBA in Barcelona or Artium in Vitoria) and abroad (Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, Guggenheim Museum in New York or Hirshhorn Museum in Washington) as well as in many institutional collections (public administrations, financial institutions, companies,...) around the world.

 

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