Pablo Palazuelo

PABLO PALAZUELO (Madrid, 1916 – Galapagar, Madrid, 2007).
“L’ablatif absolu,” 1975.
Set of five prints. Copies 49/140.
One of the prints appears on the frontispiece of the book.
Publisher: Maeght, Paris; text by Michel Couturier.
Signed and numbered by the artist.
Measurements: 24 x 18 cm (x15): 26 x 20 x 4.5 cm (portfolio).
The portfolio *L'ablatif absolu*, created in 1975, takes its title from a Latin grammatical term; this is no coincidence, as it reveals Palazuelo’s deep interest in systems of organization, hidden structures, and languages capable of explaining reality beyond visible appearance. Far from viewing printmaking as a secondary discipline to painting or sculpture, Palazuelo found in it a privileged medium for developing his explorations of line and the transformation of forms. Each print in *L’ablatif absolu* can be read as a stage in a continuous process, in which one geometric figure evolves into another through shifts, folds, tensions, and openings.
Pablo Palazuelo was one of the leading figures of 20th-century Spanish abstraction. After beginning his studies in architecture in Madrid and Oxford, he devoted himself fully to painting beginning in 1939. Settling in Paris in 1948, he began to gain significant international recognition thanks to the Denise René Gallery. Throughout his career, he received major awards, including the Kandinsky Prize, the Carnegie Prize, the National Prize for the Visual Arts, the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts, and the Velázquez Prize for the Visual Arts. The Reina Sofía Museum dedicated a major retrospective to him in 1995, followed by others at MACBA and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2006–2007).
His work is part of the collections of the Reina Sofía Museum, the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao, MACBA, the Maeght Foundation, the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and the Kunsthaus Zürich, among other major international institutions.