Luis Feito

LUIS FEITO (Madrid, 1929 – Rascafría, Madrid, 2021).
Untitled, ca. 1980.
Watercolor and ink on paper.
Signed in the lower left corner. With a red stamped seal in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 50 x 69 cm; 64 x 84 cm (frame).

Probably created around 1980, this work marks a period of refinement in Luis Feito’s artistic language. The circle, a recurring motif in his paintings since the late 1950s, takes center stage here, accompanied by a large, enveloping red shape and a strict horizontal black line. During these years, the artist was moving toward greater simplification and geometrization of the image, a trait that would characterize much of his later work.

The watercolor retains visible brushstrokes, and the splatters introduce a gestural energy that contrasts with the density of the circle and the precision of the black line. The white of the paper plays an active role in the composition, reinforcing the balance between gesture and structure. This relationship between works on paper and pictorial exploration was reflected in the retrospective *Feito: Works 1952–2002* at the Reina Sofía Museum, which brought together a broad collection of works on paper.

Luis Feito was a key figure in Spanish abstraction during the second half of the 20th century and a founding member of the El Paso group in 1957. Based in Paris since 1956, he built an extensive international career before moving, in the early 1980s, to Montreal and later to New York. The Reina Sofía Museum dedicated a major retrospective to him in 2002, and his work is part of important international collections such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.