Modest Cuixart

MODEST CUIXART I TÀPIES (Barcelona, 1925 - Palafrugell, Girona, 2007).
"Secrot", 1992.
Acrylic and material on canvas.
Work reproduced full page in "Modest cuixart, Human Surgery", Girona Art Museum, 2006, p. 83.
Signed, dated and titled on the back.
Measurements: 92 x 73 cm; 95 x 76 cm (frame).
Work reproduced full page in "Modest cuixart, Cirugía Humana", Museo de Arte de Girona, 2006, p. 83. The choice to highlight this work in the catalog was the artist's choice. Dark colors generate a dense and intriguing atmosphere. However, Cuixart balances both the concept and the composition through various points of color through which he manages to completely capture the viewer's attention, focusing and directing it through the geometric element. Establishing a visual journey that runs through the entire pictorial surface. As the Modest Cuixart Foundation points out "The last stage corresponds to the 90s and is characterized by a return to the sobriety of his best times through an introspection in the subterranean and atavistic nature that demonstrates a great maturity, technical and conceptual". In this particular case the presence of the human figure indicates those first moments of transition between two artistic stages.
Cuixart initially studied medicine, but soon abandoned his studies to devote himself to painting, and entered the Academia Libre de Pintura in Barcelona. In 1948 he participated in the foundation of the group Dau al Set, together with Brossa, Ponç, Tàpies and Tharrats, among others. Concerned with the plastic value of the sign, his work has from the beginning a strong kinship with surrealism, as well as a great sensitivity to the expressive power of color. Towards 1955 he immersed himself in material informalism, which led him to use the "grattage" in works with a certain orientalist flavour. In 1959 he won first prize at the São Paulo Biennial and exhibited at the Documenta in Kassel, and the following year he took part in an exhibition of Spanish avant-garde works at the Tate Gallery in London and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Cuixart introduces collage in his work in 1962, which will gradually lead him towards pop-art. Enriched by all these experiences, he returns again to flat painting, reaching a very personal critical realism, which synthesizes expressionism with dramatically transformed figuration, always valuing the chromatic qualities. In the seventies he exhibited in numerous national and international capitals, such as Paris, Madrid, São Paulo, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Basel, Barcelona and Milan, among others. In the following decade, Cuixart gradually freed his painting from its aggressive aspects to give it a more lyrical tone. In addition, he participates in a group exhibition at the UNESCO Palace in Paris, receives the Cross of St. George of the Generalitat of Catalonia, and the Cross of Isabella the Catholic. In 1988, he holds an anthological exhibition in Japan, in the cities of Kobe and Tokyo. He continues to work with exuberant colors and shapes, and reincorporates a more material figuration to his work. In 1998 the foundation that bears his name was created in Palafrugell, and the following year he was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts by the Ministry of Culture. He is represented in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Tate Gallery in London, the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Madrid, Barcelona and Saint-Etienne (France), the Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, the Museo de Grabado Español Contemporáneo in Marbella, the Museo de Arte de la Universidad de São Paulo, the Museo de Arte Abstracto in Cuenca and the Museo del Ampurdán, among many others.