Julio Castellanos González (b. Mexico City, October 3, 1905 – d. Mexico City, July 16, 1947) was a Mexican painter and engraver.
Julio Castellanos González (b. Mexico City, October 3, 1905 – d. Mexico City, July 16, 1947) was a Mexican painter and engraver.
Abraham Ángel had an intense homosexual affair with Manuel Rodríguez Lozano, his tutor. In that difficult moment Abraham Ángel decided to drop his surnames and moved to his lover’s home. A couple of years later, Lozano chose another young artist, Julio Castellanos, as his protégé, and abandoned Abraham Ángel. Humiliated and depressed, he was found dead from an accidental cocaine overdose on October 27, 1924. Raoul Fournier was a friend of Manuel Rodriguez Lozano, Abraham Ángel, Julio Castellanos, the friendship with Abraham Ángel was fruitful when the painter illustrated the doctor's thesis: «The pathophysiology of nephritis. Current state of play. Physician's Conduct." Raoul maintained a very short-lived relationship with Manuel Rodríguez Lozano, which resulted in a strong friendship, which can be seen at the moment when Raoul lifts the death certificate of Abraham Angel, something imprecise because of the belief that the young painter had died of a heart attack, hiding what was later known: Abraham Ángel had committed suicide in the workshop of Manuel Rodriguez Lozano.
Castellanos matriculated the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1918, where he studied under Saturnino Herrán and Leandro Izaguirre, together with Agustín Lazo, Rufino Tamayo and Leopoldo Méndez. Afterwards he studied engraving in the United States, where he met Manuel Rodríguez Lozano, who influenced his work strongly. Back in Mexico, he participated in the open-air painting schools (Spanish: Escuela de Pintura al Aire Libre) there, and studied drawing under Adolfo Best Maugard. In 1925 he had his first single exhibition in Buenos Aires, and moved to Paris to deal with European art. Returned to Mexico, he joined the Teatro Ulises group, and exhibited six paintings in a Los Contemporáneos' exhibition, that were totally different from his earlier works.[1] His first and only finished two murals he painted at Juan O'Gorman's Escuela Melchor Ocampo (Melchor Ocampo school), Coyoacán, in 1933. A further partly finished mural, he painted in a school in the Colonia Peralvillo of Mexico City, titled "El ojo enfermo"(the injured eye).[2] Together with Frida Kahlo, he was awarded by the Secretaría de Educación Pública in 1946, the same year, when his wife Zita Basich Leija gave birth to their son Antonio, today a notable sculptor. Castellanos exhibited his works in Buenos Aires, Paris and New York City, and participated in several group exhibitions in his home country as well as in the United States.[3] He died shortly after he became director of the department of plastic and fine arts.[4]
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