Julio Larraz (Cuban, b. 1944) is renown as a painter’s painter. His compositions reveal a deft handling of paint, meticulous brushstrokes, plays of shadows against strong light, illusions of textural materiality. The Cuban born artist’s career developed in the United States where his twists on realism have been marked by a thorough understanding and transformation of the legacies of 17th-century Spanish still-life painters, such as Juan Sánchez Cotán, late 19th-century American painters, such as Winslow Homer, and 20th century realist painters, such as Andrew Wyeth. Larraz’s still-lifes, portraitures, landscapes, and seascapes express a sense of mystery—a sense of an impending occurrence. These are the components visualized in "Sartén (Frying Pan)", a commonplace skillet, infused with importance and ambiguity because of its size and placement on an oversized mound of ice, with just enough texture to suggest marble. Larraz’s disposition for the uncanny mixture of objects from our immediate surroundings commands great visual admiration.

Text written by Julia P. Herzberg for Julio Larraz’s "Sarten" (The Frying Pan), 1982