Julio Alpuy - The Man

Julio Alpuy was born in Tacuarembo, Uruguay, in 1919. He moved to Montevideo in 1935 to continue his studies. In 1940, at the age of 21, he was introduced to Joaquin Torres-Garcia and joined the Torres-Garcia workshop. In 1943-44 he began teaching at the workshop under Torres-Garcia's direction. In 1945 Alpuy traveled to Peru and Bolivia with Gonzalo Fonseca and Jonio Montiel, both members of the workshop. In Montevideo in 1949, he executed several mural commissions in mosaic for the architects Leborgne and De Leone and for Torres-Garcia's home.

In 1951-53 he traveled to Europe and the Middle East and recorded impressions of his travels in sketchbooks. In 1953 he returned to Montevideo and resumed teaching at El Taller. In 1955 he executed a series of large mural paintings for architect Paysse Reyes, the Lyceum Larranaga, and the YMCA headquarters in Montevideo. In 1957 he traveled to Chile, and then, invited by Colombian artists, he moved to Bogota. In Bogota Alpuy met the renowned art critic Marta Traba. In 1959 he moved to Caracas, and then in 1961 he emigrated to New York City, where he still resides, teaching privately and working in his Soho studio. In 1961 he received The New School for Social Research Fellowship. In 1981 he received a mural commission at the Uruguayan Embassy in Buenos Aires. Alpuy has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (1983), the New York Council for the Arts (1986), and the Gottlieb Foundation (1990).

© 1996 Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College