Carlos Mensa

CARLOS MENSA CORCHETE, (Barcelona, 1936-1982).
"Portrait of a woman", 1972.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower left corner.
With labels of Sala Pelaires (Palma de Mallorca) and Galería Iolás-Velasco (Madrid) on the back.
Reproduced in: BENEYTO, Antonio. Mensa. Contemporary Spanish artists. General Direction of Fine Arts Ministry of Education and Science. Bilbao, 1977 (with the title "Dorso")/and Catalogue of the artist's exhibition at the Sala Pelaires, with text by Mario Vargas Llosa (page 13).
Measurements: 100 x 81 cm; 112.5 x 93 cm (frame).

Due to its date of creation, the present work is already inserted in the best known stage of Carlos Mensa's work: the 70's meant in his career the encounter, finally in a definitive way, the encounter with his own language, very particular, and his definitive international expansion, especially in Italy, as well as the growing interest he awoke among the general public and the critics.
Carlos Mensa was a self-taught painter of the twentieth century in the three fields for which he was recognized: painting, drawing and sculpture (except for some courses such as the one he took at the Royal Artistic Circle of Barcelona towards the middle of the century, or the scholarship that allowed him to go to Paris in 1966). After his journey through the Civil War, he returned to Barcelona in 1950, to devote himself to painting seven years later, after seeing an exhibition and under the impression that caused him, above all, the works of Giorgio de Chirico. Founder of Grupo Síntesis with Teo Asensio and Enrique Maas in 1961, he decided two years later to devote himself exclusively to painting.
He always stood out for his particular style, totally alien to the fashions of each moment but influenced by the avant-garde that the artist wanted, so that he was not apart from modernity. His technical perfection is also frequently mentioned, with which he presents works that can be related to certain elements of Expressionism, Realism, Surrealism, with certain artists or important works of the past and, often, a fierce criticism, constantly looking for the absurd and corrosive, seeking situations of impact almost always extreme and somewhat risky, almost like allegories in images, or visual metaphors.
His work has been exhibited in Milan, Paris, Rome, Palma de Mallorca, Bremen, Madrid, Barcelona, etc., and is kept in several private collections and in outstanding institutions such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofái in Madrid, the Museo d'Arte Constantino Barbella, the Musei Palazzo d'Avalos, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Barcelona, etc.