Julio Zachrisson
Winner of the first «Premio Aragón Goya» Engraving Prize, Julio Zachrisson (Panamá, 1930) has for decades been linked, for biographical reasons, to the world of Spanish literature and art. His work shows a great concern with depicting the world around him with critical, thoughtful eyes. Devoting his time to both painting and engraving, he lived in Mexico in the Fifites, and experienced the heated disputes between the muralists and the standard-bearers for the search for new forms. His conciliatory attitude allowed him to assimilate the positive aspects of both visions, and he was stimulated by the renovating, creative momentum that sprang from the heat of the debate.Impelled by the curiosity awoken in him by reproductions of Goya's Tauromaquia, in 1961 he travelled to Europe, and after visiting El Prado and seeing the work of the great Spanish painter, he decided to stay in Madrid. Confronting the dilemma of how to integrate into the world of European culture without abandoning his own identity, he has managed to create work that bears his own personality, and in which his American roots lie alongside the influence of the engravings of Goya, Picasso, Ernst and Klee.
