Julio Larraz

A master of realism, Julio Larraz stands out strongly on the American contemporary art scene. Throughout his artistic career he has indefatigably pursued a line of expressive and thematic research out of which an unmistakable style has gradually emerged. Deaf to the allure of fashions and the blandishments of critics, Larraz has never abjured his figurative vocation, recreating it freely in every picture. Fruit of the tension between creative autonomy and a vast and heterogeneous pictorial culture, his work cannot be ascribed to any particular current, even though it does not fail to reflect tendencies in contemporary art and is always making ironic references to the colours and motifs of the Caribbean. Through a series of splendid illustrations, this book examines Larraz's thirty-year dialogue with painting, making it an indispensable means of understanding the work of a leading exponent of contemporary art.