167 - JORGE CASTILLO CASALDERREY, (Pontevedra, 1933).

JORGE CASTILLO CASALDERREY, (Pontevedra, 1933). "2000 years of war", 2023. Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower left corner. Measurements: 65 x 60 cm; 77 x 64,50 cm (frame). Since he was a child, Jorge Castillo has been passionate about drawing, and when he was only ten years old, he made his first copy of Rubens with colored pencils. According to Castillo, Rubens' painting taught him to understand the cubism of Braque and Picasso. He has lived in Argentina, Spain, France, Italy, Germany and the United States, and since 2008 he has lived in Ibiza. He grew up in Buenos Aires, where he spent long hours at the port, besides dedicating his time to painting and writing. During these years he began to show his paintings, even exhibiting at the Salón de Mayo. He also published poems and short stories in magazines. However, at the age of twenty-two he decided to leave his city and go to Paris. However, for economic reasons he settled in Spain, specifically in Madrid, where he spent six years, between 1957 and 1963, the first three of them living as a vagabond. However, his contact with Viola and Jorge Cela, who were impressed by his drawings, would change the course of his life. During these years he would gradually opt for the technique of engraving, which from then on would be one of his main means of expression. He then began to emerge as an artist, to sell his first works and to establish some important contacts, protected by Luis González Robles, who in 1960 took him to the São Paulo Biennial. There, his works surprised and obtained praiseworthy reviews, and during these years he also exhibited in Madrid and Barcelona, as well as in San Francisco, Lisbon, Pittsburgh and Tokyo. And it was in 1964, the year of his participation in the Venice Biennial, when the doors of Paris finally opened for him, thanks to the contract he signed with the art dealer André Schoeller. In 1967 Castillo left Paris and moved to Geneva, although he soon left the city to settle in Boissano, Italy. In 1969 he was invited by the German government to work in Berlin, where he lived until 1975. In 1970 he exhibited at the Nationalgalerie in the German capital, the first major museum exhibition dedicated to a specific period of his career, and later in numerous Berlin galleries. When he left Berlin Castillo moved to Barcelona, by then a recognized painter in Europe and America. There he exhibited regularly at the Joan Prats gallery, and met Salvador Dalí. During these years he began to visit New York and finally settled there in 1981, remaining in the city until 1992. There he was hired by the prestigious Marlborough Gallery, and his successes continued. Throughout his career, Castillo won prizes such as the International Drawing and Painting Awards of Darmstadt, the City of Pontevedra, and the Cultura Viva de las Artes Plásticas. He is currently represented at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne, the Juan March Foundation, the National Galleries of Edinburgh and Berlin, the Museums of Modern Art in San Francisco and Vitoria, the Kunsthalle in Bremen, the Albertina in Vienna, the National Library of Spain and the Guggenheim in New York, among others.