Oscar Domínguez

OSCAR DOMÍNGUEZ PALAZÓN (La Laguna, Tenerife, 1906 - Paris, 1957).
"La ville, la nuite", 1954.
Oil on canvas.
Attached certificate issued by Ana Mª Vázquez de Parga in 2010.
Measurements: 14 x 22 cm; 32 x 40 cm (frame).
This work, which belongs to the last period of Oscar Domínguez's artistic career, shows in its composition that certainly tragic atmosphere, which characterises the paintings of this period. A feeling that stemmed from the artist's personal situation, who a year before this painting was executed said: "This year has been a terrible thing; I have lost more than ten friends whom I loved deeply". This was a period in which he returned to working with decalcomania, a technique in which he was a pioneer. This vibrant aesthetic, where chance intervenes, transforming the work, are characteristics that are echoed in the piece presented at Setdart, where Domínguez reaches the sublimation of forms, which evaporate, generating a confused and vibrant nocturnal view. It is worth mentioning that the work is certified by Ana Vázquez de Parga, who has made a great study of the works of Oscar Domínguez, highlighting her participation as curator of the exhibition "Oscar Domínguez 1926-1957, a retrospective".
Domínguez belonged to the Generation of 1927, and invented decalcomania, a pictorial technique which consists of applying black gouache to a sheet of paper, which is then placed on top of another sheet of paper on which slight pressure is exerted, in order to finally peel off both papers before they dry. In 1927, on family business, Domínguez travelled to Paris for the first time. He returned the following year and came into contact with the Surrealist movement, and especially with its central figure, André Breton. This group was to mark his career until he was expelled from the group for approaching Picasso's painting. He made his individual debut in 1933, at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. In 1935 he took part in the Surrealist Exhibition in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where he signed the manifesto "Du temps que les surréalistes aviaient raison". His surrealist objects are also important, some of which he exhibited in Paris at the Exposition Surréaliste d'Objets de la Galerie Charles Ratton in 1936. Because of the Civil War he went into exile in France, spending practically the rest of his days in the capital. The artist lived the last years of his life as a prisoner of madness after suffering from acromegaly, a degenerative disease that deformed his physique and caused his skull to grow extraordinarily large. On New Year's Eve 1957 he committed suicide in Paris, completely drunk, by slitting his wrists in the bathroom of a party given by his friend, the Vicomtesse de Noaffles. Domínguez is today considered one of the world's leading exponents of the Spanish historical avant-garde that emerged in Paris during the first decades of the 20th century. In general, the figures and objects that make up his surrealist works contain magical, mechanistic and sexual references, many of them set in the Canary Islands landscape despite the fact that he lived most of his life in Paris. The most important contribution that Óscar Domínguez made to surrealism was the invention of decalcomania or decalcomania, a technique in which psychic automatism played a leading role. This procedure was very well received by the Surrealists, who quickly adopted it and subsequently influenced Abstract Expressionist painting. Decalcomania consists of introducing liquid black gouache between two sheets of paper by pressing them together in an uncontrolled manner. Another of his contributions to the Surrealist movement was the theory of the petrification of time through which he began to introduce crystallised forms and angular net structures into his compositions. Petrifications of this style can be found in the paintings of René Magritte.