Paisaje urbano VII.jpg Painting by Nelson San Julián

About the work...

Inspired by the work of painters Pablo Picasso, Amadeo Modigliani, and Tamara de Lempicka, among other exponents of the trends of the early 20th century, the Uruguayan painter, Nelson San Julián creates his own style, marked by Art Deco.

Due to his friendship within the circle of the "El Aleph" Bookshop in Montevideo's Old City, he makes direct contact with books and publications that would otherwise be far from public knowledge. This is how you read art magazines of the time from various origins, French, German and Italian. There he makes contact with Planism, Cubism, Neo Cubism and Art Deco. Because of that he meets the Sculptors Paul Manship, Raymond Delamarre, Donald De Lue and Pierre Turin. In the pictorial it takes influences from André Derain, André Lhote, and Jean Dupas. Locally, he is very impressed by the well-known Uruguayan magazine "La Pluma". The great influence of the immortal “Escuela Montevideana”, by those Uruguayan artists such as José Gurvich, Carmelo de Arzadúm, Rafael Barradas and Melchor Méndez Magariños, who knew how to capture the essence of their time, also stands out. Also by Uruguayan sculptors of the stature of José Luis Zorrilla de San Martín and Antonio Pena. In this way, it makes contact with all the artistic movements of the beginning of the 20th century and the end of the 19th. It would be in this well-known bookstore where he sells his first works already defined by his characteristic style. A great mix of isms and creative currents that studied the movement and the human body as it was rarely done in art history.

Nelson San Julián begins in this new world where styles are mixed with each other, avant-gardes, shapes and colors. Being an artist who stands out for the specific content of the typically Art Deco gesture and its volumetric light, being able to synthesize the figure in its last components, but keeping the geometric anatomy and the consciousness of volume, guided by Planism and Neo Cubism. It is with the thematic series, where he feels freest to be able to develop variants of the same theme, thus not exhausting the original idea. On the contrary, it displays a whole range of experiences and possibilities, leaving each series open to a new interpretation, since it does not exhaust itself.

• Nationality: URUGUAY
• Date of birth : 1964
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary Uruguayan Artists