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Eduardo ARROYO (1937 - 2018)

Painter and Spanish writer. 

In 1957, he finished his studies in journalism in Madrid and the following year he/she moved to Paris with the intention of becoming a writer. Not very convinced of his own writing skills and his political judgement, Arroyo decided to devote his time to painting.

Arroyo taught himself. He began to "tell stories in pictures" and thus occupied a special position in the Paris of the 1950s, where at that time, abstract and not representational narrative painting prevailed. Simple to read references to historic events and characters prevail in his representational and figurative compositions. Eduardo Arroyo composed stereotypical figures, which represent characters from certain social classes. He often included defamiliarized quotations from famous pictures with a touch of irony. 

The artist's first exhibition took place at the Claude Lavain gallery at Place Vendôme. At that time the audience was still in love with his cheeky provocations. However, his works came to be increasingly considered scandalous and were censored. Arroyo dared to caricature established artists such as Mirò or Duchamp. This provoked further enmity and heavy criticism.

After Franco's death in 1976 Eduardo Arroyo returned to Spain. Officially, his home country honored him with a major retrospective. In 1983 Eduardo Arroyo received the Great National Prize for Painting in Spain. From 1969 Arroyo occassionaly also worked as stage designer for important European productions.

Eduardo Arroyo has participated in numerous international exhibitions and has taken part in biennales.