Biografia
Pablo Gargallo is considered one of the most important early 20th century Spanish sculptors along with Julio González. Born in Maella, Aragon, he moved with his family to Barcelona in 1888, where he met with artists in the famous Quatre Gats, a cultural circle frequented by Pablo Picasso and Isidre Nonell, among others. He was the disciple of the sculptor Eusebi Arnau. In 1903 he was in Paris for six months after winning a scholarship and returned to Paris in 1911 where he became friends with Modigliani and Juan Gris. It was in Paris that his work matured into a style of sculpture based on the creation of three-dimensional pieces using flat metal plate.
Building upon the Spanish traditions of fine metal craft, he began to compose masks from thin sheets of iron and copper, hammered, twisted, cut and fitted together, evolving a new mode of plastic expression which had considerable and growing influence in expanding the sculptural idiom of later decades. He was one of the first to practice the transposition of convex into concave surface and he was also, in his later work, one of the first to give positive significance to enclosed space in a sculptural work. His work is characterised by the combination between classicism and experimentation, integrating the innovations of cubism and playing with volume and void.
Pablo Gargallo learned to work with iron in the Escuela de la Lonja (Lonja School) in Barcelona and developed most of his work in copper, iron and lead. He also must have learned from ironworking artisans during his collaboration in large projects such as the construction of the Palau de la Música Catalana or the Hospital de Sant Pau.