"Our Times - After the Explosion" by Julio de Diego (Spain/US, 1900-1979) mixed media/artist board, signed, titled and dated 1947, Fletcher Gallery label on back, framed - 30" x 25"
 
Julio de Diego is best known for his style of merging surrelaism, folkart and cubism, characterizing his own work as “lyrical,” explaining, “through the years, the surrealists, the social-conscious painters and the others tried to adopt me, but I went my own way, good, bad or indifferent.” He had his first art exhibition at the age of 17, served in the Spanish Calvary, was an actor, a ballet dancer, a maker of opera sceneries, and was art director for Spain's first four reel film. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1924 and settled in Chicago two years later.  Famously, he went to the top of the Woolworth Building and threw his last remaing few cents into the wind, committing himself to America and a career in painting. He established himself with a commission for the decoration of two chapels in St. Gregory’s Church. He also worked in fashion illustration, designed magazine covers, and developed a popular laundry bag for the Hotel Sherman. He began exhibiting through the Art Institute of Chicago in 1929, and participated in the annual Chicago Artists Exhibitions, Annual American Exhibitions, and International Water Color Exhibitions. He held a solo exhibition at the Art Institute in the summer of 1935. De Diego continued to develop his artistic vocabulary with a growing interest in Mexican art. He traveled throughout Mexico acquainting himself with the works of muralists such as Carlos Merida, and also began a collection of small native artifacts. While in Mexico, de Diego made a living designing costumes and scenery for ballets. His talents continued to expand as he moved into book illustration, and his work in jewelry making was incorporated into the 1946 Modern Handmade Jewelry exhibition at MoMA. After several unsuccesful marriages, he married actor and famous burlesque dancer.  That marriage too was unsucceful.  Thereafter, de Diego moved to California for a bit before eventaully settling in Florida.  He notably worked in the Renaissance method of “velatura,” building up to as many as forty glazes of oil in each painting. He also commonly worked within gouache, graphite, and mixed media. De Diego’s work is included in the collections of the Milwaukee Art Institute, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, MoMA, and the Montclair Art Museum, among others.