FEMME À L’AMPHORE II – WOMAN WITH AMPHORA II

1929 -1930

Medium : Bronze, cut out.

Dimensions : 35,2 x 10,2 x 0,7 cm

Femme à l’amphore II (Woman with an amphora II) is a work in cut bronze executed by Julio González in 1929-1930.

This work showing a woman holding a large jug or “amphora” on her head is a variation on one of González’s favorite themes: life in the countryside.

It emerges at an important crossroads in González’s career, when he embraces his true vocation as a sculptor and sets about revolutionizing modern metallic sculpture.   It was created around the same time as a previous work with the identical title (fig. 2).  Unlike the first version, a vertical and three-dimensional rendition in cut and wrought iron, González reduces the volumes in the second to a single, flat plane, cut out of a sheet of bronze, and adds a sway to the woman’s hips.  The result is a graceful, dynamic figure whose elegantly curved silhouette can be projected and multiplied by its shadow.  In this way, this sculpture is reminiscent of the cut-outs used in shadow theater, a form of entertainment very much in vogue in Parisian cabarets at the turn of the 20th century when González first arrived to the capital from Barcelona.

Each year, a limited-edition cast of Woman with an amphora II is awarded to the winner of the Julio González Prize.  This award created in 2000 in partnership between the González Estate and the IVAM Centre Julio González recognizes a contemporary artist whose production embodies the inventive spirit of Julio González’s work.