Eduardo Arroyo

EDUARDO ARROYO (Madrid, 1937-2018).
"Ramoneur", 1982.
Patinated bronze and wood. Exemplary 1/6.
Presents labels on the base of the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris) and Bernard Hutton Galleries (New York).
It has the name of the foundry "Magisa".
Signed, dated and numbered.
Measurements: 44.5 x 25 x 27 cm; 4 x 25 x 25 x 25 cm (base).
The Spanish translation of Ramoneur means chimney sweep, a concept that interested Arroyo throughout his career as he resorted to it on numerous occasions. Thus exploring the figure of the chimney sweep from different artistic techniques and materials. In this particular case it is a bronze bust whose aesthetic is completely contemporary. The author abandons the idea of a traditional bust that starts from the shoulders and chooses to finish the sculpture at the neck. He presents us with a protagonist wearing a top hat and with a face based on geometry, using for its composition different planes and superimposed forms in tune with a post-cubist aesthetic. However, the way in which he models the neck is defined by more organic, fluid and expressive forms that reveal the sculptor's tactile quality. One of the common traits in Arroyo's representations of the "Ramoneurs" is that they possess a certain caricatured sense as can be seen in this piece.
Arroyo began his career in journalism, finishing his studies in 1957. He then left for Paris, fleeing the asphyxiating Spanish political climate of the time. Although his first vocation was as a writer, a task he continues to this day, by 1960 he was already making a living as a painter. That year, he participated for the first time in the Salón de Pintura Joven in Paris. His critical attitude towards dictatorships, both political and artistic, pushed him to controversial initiatives. He opted for figurative painting during the years of the overwhelming dominance of abstract painting in Paris, and his first themes were reminiscent of "black Spain" (effigies of Philip II, bullfighters, dancers), worked in a caustic and unromantic key. At the beginning of the sixties his plastic vocabulary moved under the North American influence of pop art, and in 1964 his break with informal art became definitive. His first public impact came in 1963, when he presented a series of effigies of dictators at the Third Paris Biennial, which provoked protests from the Spanish government. That same year, Arroyo prepared an exhibition at the Biosca Gallery in Madrid, which was inaugurated without his presence since he had to flee to France, pursued by the police; the exhibition was censored and closed a few days later. However, Arroyo's figurative option took a long time to be accepted in Paris. The painter rejected the unconditional devotion to certain avant-gardists, such as Duchamp or Miró, which he considered imposed by fashions. Actually, his interest is to demystify the great masters and defend the role of the market as protector and thermometer of art, as opposed to the network of museums and influences paid for with public money. In 1974, Arroyo was expelled from Spain by the regime, and he would not recover his passport until Franco's death. However, his critical takeoff in Spain was not immediate, and would be delayed until the early eighties. In 1982 he was awarded the National Prize for Plastic Arts, and anthological exhibitions were dedicated to him at the National Library in Madrid and the Pompidou Center in Paris. Currently, Arroyo is represented at the Museo Nacional Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C. and the Museo de Arte Moderno in Lille (France), among others.