Julio Galán (1958-2006), Hice bien quererte (I Did Well Loving You)

Julio Galán (1958-2006)
Hice bien quererte (I Did Well Loving You)
signed and inscribed 'Julio Galán, 1997' (lower right)
oil on canvas
78 ¼ x 168 7/8 in. (199 x 429 cm.) overall dimensions, diptych
78 ¼ x 70 ¾ in (199 x 180 cm.) left panel; 78 ¼ x 98 1/8 in. (199 x 249.2 cm.) right panel
Painted in 1990. Postdated by the artist 1997.

Pre-Lot Text
PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED COLLECTOR
Post Lot Text
1 Alfredo Salazar, “Julio Galán: Cada cuadro una historia diferente,” Express (April 22, 1990): 47. Annina Nosei Gallery Archive, MSS 298 Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries.
2 The spelling of the title for this work was listed on the original exhibition checklist and on the painting’s identification tag from Annina Nosei’s Gallery as “Hice bien qvererte.” While Galán constantly plays with alternative spellings in his title, and “qvererte” may have intentionally been the misspelling of “quererte,” placing an emphasis on “ver” or “seeing,” all subsequent spellings of the title, in the very exhibition catalogue of 1990, and in various publications, list the title as “quererte.”
3 Beginning in 1980 Galán presented solo exhibitions in Monterrey with Guillermo Sepúlveda at the Galería Miró (renamed Galería Arte Actual Mexicano). Moving to New York City in 1984, where he resided part-time through 1990, he secured consistent representation with Annina Nosei Gallery beginning in 1988. Barbara Farber represented Galán at her gallery in Amsterdam, Holland beginning in 1986.
4 The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey awarded Galán the coveted MARCO Prize in 1994 with a monetary award of $250,000.
5 Galán titles this painting, which compositionally is closely related to Hice bien quererte, by re-arranging the letters of the crass statement “No estén chingando.”
6 Margaret Sayers Peden, Out of the Volcano: Portraits of Contemporary Mexican Artists (Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991), 197.
7 Ibid.
8 Galán’s portrait can resemble himself at different ages, his sisters Sofia and Lissi, his cousin Golondrina, his close friends Luisa Peña and Mara Sepúlveda, among others, and in Hice bien quererte, the handsome Johnny Rodriguez.
9 Jenifer P. Borum, “Julio Galán: Annina Nosei Gallery,” Arforum International 29.2(October 1990): 169.
10 Carter Ratclife, in “Post-Modern Tropics,” Elle Magazine (April 1989) on page 162 pointedly commented, “Filled with levitating forms, Galán’s large canvases are eerily quiet. They have the quality of memory: precise, ecstatic, and obsessively treasured because it is all that remains of an irretrievable childhood.”
11 Annina Nosei to Julio Galán, fax, October 29, 1991. Annina Nosei Gallery Archive, MSS 298 Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries.