EDUARDO ARROYO
Madrid, 1937- Madrid 2018

After studying journalism, in 1958 he went to live in Paris in order to devote himself to writing. Once there, however, he changed his vocation to that of painting. In 1961 the Galerie Claude Levin gave him a commission for a solo exhibition, in which he presented portraits of picadors, cardinals and members of the military. He returned to these themes in 1963, but demonstrated a clear inclination towards provocation by showing those sectors of society in a critical figurative style derived from Pop Art. This produced a reaction of rejection from the Franco government. During this period a broad reaction to Informalism was developing in Paris, and Arroyo took part in the third Biennale de Paris with the group L’Abattoir. He also maintained a committed attitude, visible in his parody of the celebrations of “twenty-five years of peace” (Paris, 1965). That year he also began questioning the paradigmatic figures of twentieth-century art, first in his collaboration with Aillaud and Recalcati in connection with the figure of Marcel Duchamp, and then in the series Miró rehecho (Miró Remade), 1966-67, and Churchill pintor (Churchill the Painter), 1969. Arroyo’s paintings form part of the broad movement of New Figuration, close to the concurrent proposals of Pop Art but deliberately combative, with the introduction of irritating and critical elements and an evident irony. Between 1966 and 1976 he continued his reflection on the avant-garde, painting and the condition of the painter with his updating of pictures by Velázquez, Goya and David and his portraits of painters, further developing his critical analysis of the history of art, as in the series Los pintores ciegos (The Blind Painters), 1975-76. In 1974 he obtained the status of political refugee, after being expelled from Spain. Although his passport was returned to him in 1976, from 1977 onwards he concentrated on the theme of exile, and this coincided with his police series, with which his paintings acquired a new narrative density. His work on Ulysses and Companys was followed by the series on Ganivet (1977-78) and Blanco White (1978-79), concentrating on exile and the possibility of return. 
During the eighties his international impact was combined with the reaction that his work produced in Spain, where he was awarded the National Visual Arts Prize in 1982 and his work was exhibited at the National Library. During this period Arroyo continued working on series such as Toda la ciudad habla de ello (The Whole Town’s Talking About It), 1982-84, La nuit espagnole (Spanish Night) and Madrid-Paris-Madrid, 1985 and on the emblematic figure of the chimney-sweep, as well as numerous stage set designs. In the late eighties he made a series of sculptures of female figures and hats, and in the nineties he developed illustrations of Joyce’s Ullysses and new series such as El camarote de los Hermanos Marxistas (The Marxist Brother’s Cabin). In 1995 he and Andreu Alfaro were selected to represent Spain at the Biennale di Venezia. Selective exhibitions of his work have been presented at the MEAC (1984), IVAM (1989), Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao (1994) and MNCARS (1998). He died at his residence in Madrid on October 14, 2018.