Archivo Lafuente

José Luis Castillejo
Cards of Exposición por correspondencia, Fall 1966
José Luis Castillejo
La caída del avión en terreno baldío, Madrid: Zaj / Artes Gráficas Luis Pérez, 1967 [cover and inside page]
José Luis Castillejo
Actualidad y participación, Madrid: Tecnos, 1968
José Luis Castillejo
The Book of i’s, s.l.: author’s edition, 1969 [cover and inside pages]
José Luis Castillejo
El libro de las dieciocho letras, Madrid: author’s edition, 1972 [inside pages]
José Luis Castillejo
El libro de la letra, Madrid: author’s edition, 1973 [inside pages]
José Luis Castillejo
Artist’s proof of A Book of a Book, 1977
José Luis Castillejo
Letter to Ulises Carrión, Stuttgart, 1976 [selection]
José Luis Castillejo
Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow, 1968/1983
José Luis Castillejo
The Book of J’s, Madrid: Alga Marghen / Gráficas Almeida, 1999 [cover and inside pages]
José Luis Castillejo
Tlalaatala, Madrid: Alga Marghen / Gráficas Almeida, 2001 [cover and inside pages]
José Luis Castillejo
The World of Writing: A Book of Books, projects and Other Writings, 2010. Unique artist book. Mixed media on paper, 28 x 24.5 cm [83 sht.] [cover and inside]
José Luis Castillejo
The Book of Writing, 2010. Unique artist book. Mixed media on paper, 28 x 24 cm [54 sht.] [cover and inside]
José Luis Castillejo
La caída del Imperio Romano - The Fall of the Roman Empire, a Modern Writing Study, 2010-2011. Unique artist book. Mixed media on paper, 28 x 24.7 cm [selection]
José Luis Castillejo
Maldoror: La caligrafía del mal, 2011. Unique artist book. Ink and wax crayons on paper, 27.9 x 21.5 cm [137 sht.] [selection]
José Luis Castillejo
El libro de las os: The Book of O´s, 2011. Unique artist book. Ink on paper, 27.9. x 21.5 cm [59 sht.] [selection]
José Luis Castillejo
La caída de la escritura: The Fall of Writing, 2011. Unique artist book. Mixed media on paper, 28 x 24 cm [58 sht.] [cover and inside]
José Luis Castillejo
El libro de la T: The Book of Wrinkles, 2012. Unique artist book. Pencil, wax crayons and ink on paper, 27.5 x 21.5 cm [30 sht.]
José Luis Castillejo
La caída de la tinta: The Fall of the Ink, 2011. Unique artist book. Ink on paper, 27.9 x 21.5 cm [72 sht.] [selection]
José Luis Castillejo
Los ojos de la tinta: The Eyes of the Ink, 2011. Unique artist book. Ink, wax crayons and pencil on paper, 27.9 x 21.5 cm [28 sht.] [cover and inside]
José Luis Castillejo
The Hidden Letters: Las letras escondidas, s. a. [¿2011?]. Unique artist book. Ink on paper, 27.9 x 21.5 cm [71 sht.] [cover and inside]
José Luis Castillejo
Ser y letras, Madrid, 2011. Unique artist book. Ink on paper, 29.7 x 21 cm [75 sht.] [cover and inside]
José Luis Castillejo
La prosa de los impulsos: A twenty Page Book, 2011. Unique artist book. Ink on paper, 27.9. x 21.5 cm [14 sht.] [selection]
José Luis Castillejo
La caída: recordatorio 1967-2013, 2013. Unique artist book. Ink and pencil on paper, 27.9 x 21.5 cm [68 sht.] [cover and inside]
José Luis Castillejo
La escritura negra, 2013. Unique artist book. Mixed media on paper, 27.9 x 21.5 cm [42 sht.] [selection]
José Luis Castillejo
El escritor, 2013. Unique artist book. Mixed media on paper, 27.9 x 21.5 cm [59 sht.] [selection]

COLLECTION / 1945-1989 / Spain / José Luis Castillejo Archive

Almost 150 unique artists books, publications and documentation.

José Luis Castillejo (Seville, 1930–Houston, 2014), writer, diplomat, art critic and essayist, is the author of body of work deemed one of the most innovative of its time in Spain, representing a high point in national and international experimental writing.

As a theorist, Castillejo strived to establish solid foundations for the development of ‘modern writing’, dispensing with narrative formulas, and following in the footsteps of ‘modern’ painting and music, which forwent images and melody respectively. A diplomat in Washington, Algiers, Bonn, Stuttgart, Nigeria and Houston; a friend of critics, such as Clement Greenberg and Marcelin Pleynet; a prominent member of the group Zaj from 1966 to 1969; and an art collector, the work of Castillejo is full of landmarks in the field of creation, essay writing and critique, with titles such as La caída del avión en el terreno baldío, Actualidad y participación, The book of i’s, El libro de la letra, La escritura no escrita, TLALAATALA, and Ensayos sobre arte y escritura. Much of his output remains unpublished, belonging to the collections of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and Archivo Lafuente.

This collection contains almost 150 documents, including publications, graphic work, correspondence, photographs, audiovisual material and, above all, around 100 original and unpublished books. In terms of its reception, the work of Castillejo has always been highly-regarded in specialist circles, possessing a mythical aura. Nevertheless, up to now it has been practically unknown, even for those who were familiar with his work: the proportion of books that ended up being published is minimal in comparison to that which went unpublished, and which few had come into contact with until now.

The work of Castillejo is currently undergoing a resurgence in terms of dissemination and awareness thanks to the first retrospective of his oeuvre, rendered across three exhibitions: Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC) (February–May, 2018), the Palacete del Embarcadero de la Autoridad Portuaria in Santander (August, 2018) and the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC) in Seville (October 2018–January 2019).

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