
Mechanism of a Capitalist
Year c. 1948
Artist Julio deDiego (1900-1979, American, b. Spain)
Media oil on board
Dimensions 36 x 25 inches
Born in Madrid, Spain, Julio deDiego was apprenticed at the age of fifteen to a set designer at an opera company. In 1924, he came to the United States and settled in New York City for a couple of years. He then moved to Chicago and exhibited at the Art Institute. DeDiego gained further inspiration traveling in Mexico, where he became friends with Mexican muralists such as Carlos Merida. For two summers in 1949 and 1950 he taught at the University of Denver School of Art under Vance Kirkland. He painted in a surrealist style and influenced Colorado surrealist painters, especially Phyllis Hutchinson Montrose. He was famously married to entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee, a union that overshadowed his art career. DeDiego spent the final years of his life in an artists’ colony in Sarasota, Florida.
ON VIEW in Art Deco Gallery 6
Signature unsigned
Credit Line Collection Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art
Accession Number 2007.0808