Rafael Canogar

RAFAEL CANOGAR (Toledo, 1935).
"Head", 1987.
Etching, P.A. copy.
Signed and justified by hand.
Measurements: 97 x 80 cm; 122 x 103 cm (frame).

"Head" shows the characteristic plastic language of Canogar, where the human figure appears synthesized by means of energetic gestures, masses of great graphic power and an expressiveness close to informalism and the new figuration. The head, turned into a symbol of identity, suffering and memory, acquires a strong emotional and ethical charge, in consonance with the humanist spirit of the editorial project to which it belongs.

A disciple of Daniel Vázquez Díaz, Canogar was a co-founder of the group "El Paso", and during the fifties he developed a fully informalist work, which drifted during the sixties into an increasingly complex narrative figuration. During his mature stage, from 1975 onwards, Canogar invents 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. The Olympic Suite is composed of 50 lithographs and serigraphs chosen to represent various contemporary artistic trends. It was published to commemorate the first centennial of modern Olympism.