Girona, Julio
Item
name
Girona, Julio
Surname
Girona
firstName
Julio
country origin
Cuba
gender
Male
Is Part Of
Title
Girona, Julio
Description
en
Girona was a sculptor, painter, cartoonist, and writer. In his home town of Manzanillo, at the age of 13, he exhibited a set of free-standing caricatures of prominent political figures and members of the local writers’ circle (Grupo Literario de Manzanillo), to which his father, Julio, belonged. In this debut, various characteristics of his later work can already be seen: the cross between the visual and literary arts, his love of figure, line, and letter, his interest in socio-political commentary, his humor. In 1932, having moved with his family to Havana, he enrolled in the San Alejandro Academy, where he studied sculpture with Juan José Sicre. In 1934, he left for Paris with a scholarship. He attended sculpture classes at the Académie Ranson, a school patronized by the elderly Maillol, and caught the last vestiges of the peak of the Parisian art scene. He traveled throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, cycling around Greece and reaching Egypt and the pyramids.