Julio Larraz

Julio Larraz was born in Havana, Cuba, on March 12, 1944. His family left Cuba for Miami in 1961. He later moved to New York City, where sources vary on the exact year, some placing the move in the 1960s and one gallery account dating it to 1972; there he worked as a political caricaturist and cartoonist, including work for Rolling Stone and Time, signing early pieces "Julio Fernandez," before shifting fully to painting in the early 1970s under the name Julio Larraz. His first solo exhibition was held in 1971 at the Pyramid Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Over the following decades Larraz developed a realist and magical-realist style built around allegory: maritime scenes, tropical settings, and pointed images of political and institutional power, drawing on his roots in caricature. He exhibited widely in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, including a 2004 traveling retrospective, Treinta Anos de Trabajo, shown at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Bogota and Mexico City and at museums in Zapopan and San Jose. He also spent time living in Florence, Italy, and most current sources, including the Julio Larraz Foundation and the Butler Institute of American Art, describe him as living and working in Miami today, though at least one gallery bio places him more recently in Florence. No obituary, estate notice, or gallery statement in the available record indicates that he has died.

Larraz's critical standing rests less on a single defining review than on a consistent institutional and gallery narrative: an artist who moved from political caricature into a distinct painting practice built on allegory, satire, and maritime and Caribbean imagery. Museums and galleries across the United States, Latin America, and Europe, including Art of the World Gallery, Miles McEnery Gallery, Contini Galleria d'Arte, and the Butler Institute of American Art, have repeatedly framed his work as a bridge between Cuban and American experience and between figurative realism and symbolic, sometimes pointed political commentary. No verbatim critical assessment from a named critic in a major outlet could be confirmed in the available sources, so none is quoted here.

Public auction data for Larraz is incomplete. Secondary market sources report a highest known result of roughly USD 326,500, but the specific work, auction house, and sale date could not be independently confirmed and are not asserted here. Other tracked results include a Phillips sale of a work reported as His Last Dream, at USD 112,500, and a result described by one market source as his highest sale of the past three years, at USD 152,400. Together these figures point to a market that is thin in volume and can vary considerably from one sale to the next, and any single auction figure for this artist should be treated as provisional pending further verification.

Larraz has a long, well-documented exhibition history and a presence in major museum collections, but his public auction record is not fully confirmed in available sources, with reported results ranging roughly from USD 112,500 to USD 326,500 depending on the work and source. There is no published catalogue raisonne, so provenance and verification through his representing galleries or the Julio Larraz Foundation matter more than they would for an artist with a fully catalogued body of work. Collectors should treat any auction figure for this artist, including the highest reported result, as provisional rather than as a reliable trend line.