FIGURE KNOWN AS “THE GIRAFFE”

1935

Medium : Iron, cast, welded

Dimensions : 95 x 16,5 x 17 cm

In spite of its title, devised with a tad of irony, the point of departure of this work is the human body, and specifically the female body. Constructed with several iron bars twisted at the forge and soldered with autogenous welding, La Girafe pursues the series of large format linear sculptures González began in 1934.

A sinuous, dance-like pose, emblematic of Catalan modernism

The core is situated, like in González’s previous linear sculptures, in the articulation of the hips, though in this instance the artist has eliminated the contrapposto. By avoiding the immobility that characterizes the lower register of his previous sculptures, González imparts on this figure a sinuous and ascending movement, like that of a dancer standing on tiptoes, a movement incompatible with the contrapposto stance. In keeping with this dancing movement, the design of the inferior members of La Girafe becomes more complex, integrating curves which evoke the sinuous lines of Art Nouveau decorative metalwork or, to be more precise, the Catalan modernism that the artist experienced in his early career. This same movement undulates and continues in the upper register of the work, which stretches and shrinks, culminating in a minuscule, spherical head and raised arms, reduced to the proportions of an insect’s antenna.

An affinity with Miró’s female figures

The minuscule head and arm-antenna in the form of a half-moon evoke the feminine figures that Joan Miró included in his paintings from the same period. One must keep in mind that Miró and González shared in the mid-1930s the same dealer, Pierre Loeb, albeit for a short period. They participated together in several group exhibitions, for example, a collective show of Spanish artists organized at the Cité Universitaire in Paris in 1935, as well as an exhibition devoted to González, Miró and Luis Fernández at the galerie Cahiers d’art in June and July 1936, dates which coincide approximately with the dates of the execution of La Girafe. However, it is important to keep in mind that no direct evidence attests to personal contact between González and Miró, and the affinities between their work is generally rare. The female figure currently under consideration could be viewed as an exception.

In keeping with the neo-medieval influence of Catalan modernism

The most defining and memorable element of La Girafe is undoubtedly the large disk situated directly above the hips. It bears the form of a large, empty lentil that the sculptor progressively filled with heterogeneous pieces of iron rods, plates, screws, etc., molded together with the autogenous welding technique. Though these materials are deliberately poor, the quest for transparency and painstaking accumulation of different textures confers a noble character to the work, similar to that of large pieces of Gothic metalwork from the 15th and 16th centuries. This reference attests to the Modernist taste for the neo-Medieval which dominated Barcelona during González’s formative years and early career.

The Girafe, 1935, MNAM Centre Pompidou Paris