Miguel Angel Campano

MIGUEL ÁNGEL CAMPANO (Madrid, 1948 - 2018).
Untitled.1993.
Oil and acrylic on linen.
Signed and dated on the back.
Work reproduced in: -Santiago Olmo, "Miguel Ángel Campano. Paintings 1993", Ed. Gallery Juana de Aizpuru, Madrid 1993, p. 12 -Santiago Olmo, "Campano", Ed. Association Fortant de France, Setè 1994, p. 45. -Santiago Olmo, "Miguel Ángel Campano", Ed. Sa Nostra, Social and Cultural Work, Palma de Mallorca 1997, p. 19".
Measurements: 266 x 195 cm.

We are before a composition of great format that conjugates the visual effect that results from the chromatic and conceptual contrast between two opposite colors, the white and the black, at the time that explores the imperfection of the minimal deceptively geometric forms: the deformed oval, the point that expands in spot. These hollowed out forms are characteristic of the works made by Campano in the early nineties, which he had already begun to explore when he abandoned figuration. The artist claimed to be influenced by his travels to Asian countries. In the nineties, he used only black oil. Campano reinvented himself again and again.

From the 1990s onwards, Campano's work underwent different processes of stripping: on the one hand, references to tradition were cut and, on the other, color was excluded from his painting, working only in black on bare canvas. Reflection on geometry, on the other hand, became a key aspect of his production.

Miguel Ángel Campano is one of the referents of the so-called renovation of Spanish painting, which took place in the eighties and in which Ferrán García Sevilla, José Manuel Broto, José María Sicilia and Miquel Barceló also participated. In the 70's he moved to Paris thanks to a scholarship; the planned year became a stay of more than ten, there he lived and developed his brilliant pictorial career. Then he went to live in Mallorca. In 1980 he was part of the exhibition Madrid DF, in the Municipal Museum of Madrid, along with several artists among whom were the same ones that today -except García Sevilla- accompany him in the Palacio de Velázquez. Five years later he was selected, together with other fellow artists of his generation, then all young painters, such as Miquel Barceló, who was already an outstanding figure, and José María Sicilia, for a group exhibition in New York. In 1996 he was awarded the National Prize for Plastic Arts. He had just suffered a serious stroke and underwent surgery in Madrid. This forced him to spend several months without painting. Then he painted "only in black", a very symbolic color according to his own words. Three years later, the Reina Sofia Museum organized in this same Palacio de Velazquez an exhibition dedicated to his recent work then, that of the 90s. His works are exhibited in the most important museums, such as the British Museum in London, the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Reina Sofía in Madrid.