Spanish, 20th century, male.
Active in France from 1958.
Born 26 February 1937, in Madrid.
Painter (including mixed media), watercolourist, decorative designer, sculptor, engraver, draughtsman. Scenes with figures, figures, portraits. Stage sets.
Nouvelle Figuration, Figuration Narrative.
Eduardo Arroyo was educated at the Lycée Français in Madrid and then at the School of Journalism. At the age of 21, he left Franco's Spain for Paris, where he was to remain in exile for some 20 years. Although his original intention was to be a journalist rather than a painter, he saw painting as the most accessible and effective medium for his main aim, which was political militancy. He taught himself to paint, but this was made easier by the fact that it was not so much any possible aesthetic dimension to the work that interested him, but rather its immediate intelligibility and the power of the image. He brought together a mixture of techniques to create the effective image. Collage in its various forms was a constant feature of his style. In his early work, he often turned to what was then called 'Modification': that is, taking either a genuine picture from a second-hand shop, or a reproduction (as in the case of a work by Goya, Velázquez or Miró), and superimposing pictorial additions to alter the meaning, generally with the aim of being controversial and often humorous as well. He rapidly became a master of minimalist techniques, and soon began to exhibit at group shows. Some of these early shows were at the traditional exhibition centres, such as the Salon des Grands et Jeunes d'Aujourd'hui and the Salon de Mai. He was an influential member of the Salon de la Jeune Peinture, where he exhibited from 1960 onwards, and his exhibitions there between 1964 and 1969 (with Aillaud and Récalcati) triggered militant activity that led to a temporary change in the group's name....