Eduardo Arroyo was a Spanish painter, sculptor, and engraver who emerged as a central figure of neofigurativism and the new Spanish figuration. After completing his journalism studies in 1957, Arroyo left Spain for Paris to escape the restrictive political climate of the Franco regime. Although initially drawn to writing, he was already earning his living as a painter by 1960 and participated that year in the Salon de la Jeune Peinture. His early work adopted a figurative language in opposition to the dominance of abstraction in Paris, drawing on themes associated with “black Spain” and treating them with a caustic, unromantic tone.

During the early 1960s, Arroyo’s visual vocabulary absorbed influences from American pop art, and b...