Eduardo Arroyo

Eduardo Arroyo (Madrid, 1937 – 2018) is considered one of the main representatives of narrative figuration, a movement in which he stands out for the significant political and social criticism reflected in his works. His career is particularly notable for his ability to combine pre-existing images from diverse sources with a strong illustrative influence. After completing his journalism studies in 1957, he went to Paris, where he came into contact with Spanish exiles from the Civil War, which increased his political opposition to the Franco regime, clearly reflected in his early works. During these years, he developed a highly critical approach, not only towards the events around him, but also towards the most notable names in the cultural avant-garde, such as Duchamp and Miró. He lived in the French capital during the 1960s and 1970s and began to exhibit his work there. His first solo exhibition in 1961 at the Galerie Claude Levin consisted of a series of portraits of military and ecclesiastical figures. His style during this period was a critical figuration derived from Pop Art with iconographic elements that combined the demystification of art with political denunciation, combined with Dadaist and surrealist influences. His political stance meant that his work was barely known in Spain. In 1963, his exhibition at the Biosca Gallery in Madrid of a series of portraits of the dictators Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, and Salazar (now in the Reina Sofía Museum) was censored. Once democracy arrived, and at the same time as his figure was being discovered, recognition also came to him, with awards such as the National Prize for Plastic Arts in 1982, the retrospective exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou that same year, and that of the Reina Sofía Museum in 1998. A versatile artist (more than 2,000 works produced throughout his life), passionate about boxing (he left behind a library with more than 4,000 titles on this sport), writer, designer of musical and theatrical sets (for works by Wagner, Enrique Granados, Verdi, Brecht, Fernando Arrabal and Calderón de la Barca) and posters, and illustrator of literary works such as the Bible and Don Quixote. His work has been exhibited in institutions such as the Prado Museum and is part of the collections of the main contemporary art museums in Spain (Bellas Artes in Bilbao, IVAM in Valencia, MACBA in Barcelona or Artium in Vitoria) and abroad (Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, Guggenheim Museum in New York or Hirshhorn Museum in Washington) as well as in the many institutional collections (public administrations, financial institutions, companies,...) around the world.