Jorge Castillo

JORGE CASTILLO (Pontevedra, 1933).
“The Joyful Life of the Wise Owl,” 1993.
Acrylic on canvas.
Signed in the upper right corner. Titled and dated on the back.
Measurements: 130 x 195 cm.

Since the late 1950s, Jorge Castillo has developed one of the most distinctive artistic languages in contemporary European art. Initially associated with New Figuration, his work evolved into a symbolic universe where Surrealism, Expressionism, and fantasy art converge, alongside constant references to science, literature, mythology, and art history. Animals, skeletons, insects, machines, imaginary architectures, and fragmented bodies form part of an iconographic repertoire that the artist continually reorganizes to construct complex metaphors about existence, knowledge, and artistic creation.

The 1990s, the period to which “The Joyful Life of the Wise Owl” belongs, represent one of the most mature phases of his career. During these years, his compositions achieved an extraordinary balance between imaginative freedom and constructive rigor, consolidating a fully recognizable artistic language that established him as one of the leading figures of contemporary Spanish art on the international stage.

Jorge Castillo is one of the most internationally renowned contemporary Spanish artists. After spending his childhood in Argentina, he embarked on a brilliant career that soon led him to settle in Paris, where he came into contact with the major European artistic movements. He later lived in cities such as New York, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Geneva, developing a body of work that encompasses painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and set design. His deeply personal artistic language combines elements of New Figuration, Surrealism, and fantasy art with an extraordinary capacity for symbolic invention. He has been the subject of major exhibitions in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, and his work is included in such prominent collections as those of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, establishing him as a key figure in Spanish art of the second half of the 20th century.