ARROYO

Eduardo ARROYO

Eduardo Arroyo (born February 26, 1937) is a Spanish painter and graphic artist. He is also active as an author and set designer.

Arroyo, who was born in Madrid, studied art and journalism in his home city, but left Spain in 1958 because of his basic contempt for the Franco regime. He even lost his Spanish citizenship in 1974 (which he got back two years later, a year after the death of Franco). In Paris, he befriended members of the young art scene, especially Gilles Aillaud, with whom he later collaborated in creating stage sets, but also the old master, Joan Miró. In 1964, he made his breakthrough with his first important exhibition. Over 20 years of great critical success and high esteem on the art market followed. Today, the ideologically and creatively uncompromising artist is as active as he ever was, even if it seems to have become somewhat quieter around his creations.

Stylistically, Arroyo’s mostly ironic, colorful works are at the crossroads between the trends of nouvelle figuration or figuration narrative and pop art. A characteristic of his representations is the general absence of spatial depth and the flattening of perspective.

Arroyo also became known to a broad public through his many works as a set designer, as well as partially by his costume designs. In this relation, he has cooperated since 1969 especially with the director Klaus Michael Grüber, who has encouraged him in this activity. Arroyo has created sets for, among others, the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, the Paris Opéra (in 1976, Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre), the Schaubühne am Leniner Platz in Berlin and the Salzburger Festspiele (in 1991, Leoš Janáček’s Z mrtveho domu).

Arroyo’s stage play, Bantam, premiered at the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel (Residenztheater) in Munich with great success in 1986, with his friend Grüber, as director and Ailland and Antonio Recalcati for sets and costumes.

Public Acquisitions

Centre Georges Pompidou, París, France

Museum of Modern Art, New York City, USA

Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., USA

Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain

Caixa Galicia Foundation, Vigo, Spain

Fundació Suñol, Barcelona, Spain

Lille Metropole Musee d’Art Moderne, Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France

Museo Patio Herreriano de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain

Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal

National-Galerie, Berlin, Germany

Staats-Galerie Moderner Kunst in München, Germany