Exhibitions
Women as a hidden and revealed axis in the universe of Julio González at the IVAM
An exhibition that revisits the artist's work from a contemporary perspective and values the female figures who marked his career and the history of art.
The Valencian Institute of Modern Art (IVAM) presents the exhibition Women in the Work of Julio González , a proposal that revisits the artist's production from a perspective focused on the female figures that marked both his life and creative trajectory. The exhibition is part of the commemorative events for the 150th anniversary of the birth of Julio González, as indicated by the museum's director, Blanca de la Torre.
Curated by Brigitte Leal, the exhibition brings together 148 works, mostly from the IVAM collection, with the exception of four drawings from the Alfons Roig collection of the Valencia Provincial Council. This set highlights the richness of the museum's holdings and, above all, offers an in-depth reading of the role of women in the artist's universe.
The exhibition tour, open until February 2027, unfolds in two complementary axes. On the one hand, a biographical itinerary that reveals how González grew up and lived surrounded by a markedly matriarchal environment: his mother, his sisters and, later, his daughter, Roberta González, also a prominent artist in abstraction. Marie-Thérèse Roux, his sentimental companion, muse and creator, is added to this constellation. Later generations, represented by Carmen Martínez and Viviane Grimminger, contributed decisively to expanding the IVAM's funds with their donations.
However, this female presence contrasts with their scarce historical visibility. As Blanca de la Torre points out, there are hardly any works or studies of many of these women preserved, which highlights the shortcomings of traditional accounts of art history.
On the other hand, the exhibition proposes a thematic and iconographic itinerary that invites us to reconsider the representation of women in González's work. From figures inherited from the academic tradition, the journey evolves towards symbolic tensions such as the dichotomy between the garçonne —urban, modern and cultured— and the figure of the farmer, associated with work, motherhood and the continuity of life. This duality reflects the contradictions of an artist capable of moving between figuration and abstraction with a complex view of the feminine.
The exhibition discourse focuses especially on three key pieces, reinterpreted from a contemporary perspective: Dafne , revised based on the absence of feminist readings; and the tension between La mujer ante el espejo and La Montserrat , which exemplify opposing but complementary visions of female identity.
The design of the exhibition, by Manel Jiménez, opts for a palette of warm and earthy tones that reinforce the connection with materiality, hospitality and the earth, in coherence with the conceptual axes of the exhibition.
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