“Julio González: Ser artista (Being an artist)” opened on October 27, 2022 at the IVAM Centre Julio González.

This extensive retrospective mobilizes some 250 works–a significant portion of the IVAM’s extensive Julio González collection–to retrace and reevaluate his multi-faceted creative trajectory.  The majority of these were donated to the museum by Carmen Martinez and Vivianne Grimminger, the González Estate’s previous right-holders, along with thousands of the González family’s archival materials, including photographs, correspondence and administrative documents. 

“Julio González: Being an artist” is nourished by a thorough re-reading of these extensive archives by the exhibition’s curator, Juan José LaHuerta, who included a selection of these largely unpublished documents in the exhibition and in its catalogue to provide additional insight and context to the artwork. 

This reexamination of the González archives allowed LaHuerta to revisit and nuance certain commonly held notions about González’s life and career.  The exhibition strives to let González’s extraordinary, multi-faceted life and work speak for itself, in order to distance it from overly restrictive stylistic categories or formalist readings that misrepresented his work, specifically in regard to the place of abstraction.     

The exhibition will be on display at the IVAM Centro Julio González in Valencia, Spain through October 15, 2023.