Manuel Rivera Hernández

MANUEL RIVERA HERNÁNDEZ (Granada, 1928 – Madrid, 1995)
Untitled, 1973.
Ink on paper.
Bears a label from the Galería Almirante (Madrid) on the back.
Measurements: 24.5 x 17 cm; 35.5 x 28 cm (frame).
The composition features a trapezoidal geometric structure, densely articulated through successive horizontal bands of ink. The design, created through a meticulous accumulation of lines and patterns, generates varying degrees of intensity and depth, ranging from the darker, more compact areas at the bottom to the progressively more open areas at the top. The result is a surface of extraordinary tactile and visual richness, in which the manual gesture takes on a constructive function. Although Rivera is best known for his famous compositions made with wire mesh, drawing constitutes a significant—and for a long time lesser-known—aspect of his body of work. The Reina Sofía National Art Museum, on the occasion of the retrospective dedicated to the artist in 1997, specifically highlighted the presence of some twenty drawings within the exhibition as a whole.
Manuel Rivera was a founding member of the influential group El Paso, one of the key movements in the renewal of the postwar Spanish artistic avant-garde. He began his training as a sculptor in Martín Simón’s studio and later studied at the School of Fine Arts in Seville. After moving to Madrid in 1951, he worked as a muralist and fresco painter, although he soon abandoned figurative art to explore abstraction. In 1957, he co-founded El Paso alongside artists such as Rafael Canogar, Luis Feito, Juana Francés, Manolo Millares, and Antonio Saura. The group’s exhibitions, held between 1957 and 1960 in Spain and abroad, had a significant impact on the development of contemporary Spanish art. Beginning in the 1960s, Rivera delved deeper into experimentation with materials, light, and space, developing his characteristic style based on the superimposition of metal mesh.
In 1981, he received the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts and was also awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Arts and Letters of France. His work is included in major international collections and museums, including the British Museum, MoMA, the Tate, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.