Julio Larraz: Uncensored | Book presentation
The Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome, in collaboration with Galleria d’Arte Contini, is pleased to announce the presentation of the volume Julio Larraz. Uncensored, curated by Kosme de Barañano.
On Tuesday, May 19 at 6:00 pm, the book will be presented at the Sala delle Colonne of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, in the presence of the artist, with contributions by Renata Cristina Mazzantini, Director of the GNAMC, Kosme de Barañano, art historian and university professor, and Gabriele Simongini, art critic and professor. These speakers will guide the audience through Larraz’s work, offering interpretative insights into its main thematic and stylistic aspects, and helping to define its role within the contemporary art scene.
Julio Larraz, a Cuban-born artist active internationally, has developed over more than five decades a multifaceted practice encompassing painting, sculpture, and drawing. His work is distinguished by a refined stylistic coherence and a constant tension between irony, poetry, and cultural reflection.
After leaving Cuba at a young age following the rise of Fidel Castro, Larraz moved to the United States, where he began his career as a caricaturist, collaborating with major publications such as The Washington Post and The New York Times. This experience shaped his ability to condense complex ideas into striking images. The surrealist elements present in his early caricatures have remained a defining feature throughout his artistic production.
In this context, the volume curated by Kosme de Barañano focuses on the central role of drawing in Larraz’s practice, presenting a selection of 300 works. Drawing emerges not as a marginal medium, but as an autonomous and fully developed language, capable of elevating caricature to a form of high aesthetic and conceptual value. His precise and analytical line distills reality into images rich in meaning, often marked by a subtle yet incisive satirical tension. The political and social dimension of his graphic work is particularly significant, with irony serving as a critical tool to explore power structures and their protagonists.
