Jorge José Castillo Casalderrey

About

Jorge Castillo is a Spanish painter, graphic artist, and sculptor born in Pontevedra, Galicia in 1933. For most of his childhood, he and his family lived in Argentina before returning to Spain in the mid-1950s. He began his artistic training in 1948 with an apprenticeship in technical drawing and educated himself autodidactically, later developing a close collaboration with Argentine Surrealist Raquel Forner that significantly influenced his artistic direction. Castillo's career spans multiple continents and artistic mediums. After his first exhibition at Galería Altamira in Madrid in 1959, he lived and worked in Barcelona, Paris, Geneva, and Berlin before establishing himself in New York since the early 1980s. He is recognized as one of the most important Spanish exponents of Surrealism and Art informel, with work featured in major international exhibitions including the São Paulo and Venice Biennales (1964, 1968) and Kassel documenta. His artistic practice encompasses painting, printmaking (etchings, lithographs, and aquatints), and public sculpture commissions across Europe and the Americas. Castillo's work demonstrates a personal synthesis of Surrealism with elements approaching hyperrealism, heavily influenced by Pablo Picasso. His monumental triptych inspired by the Palomares nuclear incident brought him international recognition. He has received numerous awards since 1959, including the 1964 International Drawing Prize and the 1975 Darmstadt Prize for Painting. His work is held in museums worldwide, and Santiago de Compostela houses a permanent museum dedicated to his art.

Surrealism and Art informel with elements of hyperrealism and abstract expressionism