González, Julio (1876–1942)

Spanish sculptor and painter. He established the use of wrought and welded iron as an expressive sculptural medium. Influenced by the cubism of his close friend Pablo Picasso, and also by Russian constructivism and surrealism, his early sculptures are open, linear designs using rods and bands of iron, as in Woman with a Mirror about 1936–37 (IVAM, Centre Julio González, Valencia).

Trained in metalwork by his father in Barcelona, he moved in 1900 to Paris, where he met Picasso. He worked first as a painter and jewellerymaker, and from 1928 taught Picasso welding techniques, a collaboration that was to change the direction of his work. From the mid-1930s, he produced moulded, fragmented torsos from sheet iron and naturalistic, commemorative sculptures of Spanish peasant women in revolt, for example Montserrat 1936–37 (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam), which many consider to be his finest work.

Contemporary sculptors influenced by González include David Smith and Anthony Caro.