Cactus Man No. 2 1939 - 1940

This spiky character, 'Cactus Man No. 2' was wrought in metal by Julio Gonzalez. It’s all about process, you know? Bending and welding, adding and subtracting to find this prickly figure. What strikes me is the surface, not smooth or polished, but raw, almost violent. You can see the marks of the making, the textures, the gashes. Look closely at the form of the head – it’s like a collection of jagged planes and voids. The negative space gives just as much information as the steel itself! All those spikes poking out. Gonzalez was hanging out with Picasso around this time, and you can see some of the same cubist ideas, like, breaking the figure down into planes and lines. But Gonzalez made it his own. For me, it's a reminder that art doesn't have to resolve into one thing. It can be messy, strange, and unresolved.