Rafael Canogar

RAFAEL CANOGAR (Toledo, 1935)
"Race".
Blued iron sheet in black.
Exemplary 26/60.
Signed, titled, justified and numbered.
Foundry: Art Workshop José Luis Martín Moreno, Madrid.
Work referenced in the artist's online catalog (no. 2022-01).
Measurements: 32,5 x 19 x 16 cm.

Sculpture belonging to a limited edition of 60 copies, made by Rafael Canogar, a key figure of contemporary Spanish art. The work is part of his sculptural production of geometric and refined language, where the artist explores the tensions between plane, volume and space through the articulation of elementary forms.

The composition, of a markedly constructive character, is organized around the intersection of metallic planes that generate a dynamic play of light and shadow, reinforced by the blued finish. This treatment gives the piece a sober and emphatic presence, in line with Canogar's evolution towards an abstraction with structural roots.

Canogar was co-founder of the group "El Paso", and during the fifties he developed a fully informalist work, which derived during the sixties in a complex figuration. During his mature stage, from 1975 onwards, Canogar invented a new iconography, his own and personal, which he expresses through the mask, the head, the face, as a representation of the man who loses his individuality and becomes a plastic sign, as can be seen in the work we now present.

His awards include the National Prize for Plastic Arts (1982), he is a member of the San Fernando Academy, and is represented in the most important modern art collections around the world, such as the Reina Sofia Museum, the MOMA in New York, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburg, the Rufino Tamayo Museum in Mexico, and the Chicago Art Institute, among many others.