Manuel Hernández Mompó

MANUEL HERNÁNDEZ MOMPÓ, (Valencia, 1927 - Madrid, 1992).
"The Church", 1951.
Oil on tablex.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner. Signed and titled on the right.
Measurements: 26.50 x 35.50 cm, 32 x 41 cm (frame).
Far from the aesthetics that most characterizes Mompó's work, in this piece the author presents us with a figurative scene, close to Italian painting and the work of Paul Klee, which is reflected both in the tonalities used by Mompó and in this composition based on geometric figures. This particular piece was chosen for the cover of "Siete notas de pintura y algo de Hernández Mompó" Editora Nacional, Madrid, 1958. A publication whose reproduced works were presented at the Prado Hall of the Madrid Athenaeum, from January 28 to February 11, 1958.
Hernández Mompó alternated his basic and high school studies with classes at the Escuela de Artes Aplicadas y Oficios Artísticos de Valencia, which he entered in 1943. In 1948 he obtained a scholarship to paint in Granada, in the Residence for Painters, and three years later a new pension allowed him to travel to Paris. In the French capital he came into contact with the circles of informalist painters, whose influence would mark his later production, definitively leaving behind the landscapes and portraits that had dominated his work until then. Between 1954 and 1955 he spent a long period in Rome, on a grant from the Department of Culture of the Ministry of National Education to study at the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in the Italian capital. In 1954 he participated in the International Exhibition of Viareggio, where he was awarded the Italian Navigation Prize. He left Italy and settled in Amsterdam, where he again frequented the informalist cenacles. In 1957 he returned to Spain and settled in Aravaca (Madrid). The following year he was awarded a grant from the Juan March Foundation in Madrid, and won the Grand National Prize for Painting and a first medal at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts. During the sixties and seventies he alternated his residence between Madrid, Ibiza, and in 1973 he spent a year in California. On his return to Spain he settled in Mallorca. Hernández Mompó exhibited in the main capitals of Europe and the United States, and participated in national and foreign collective exhibitions. Among his most outstanding awards was the Unesco Prize received at the XXXIV Venice Biennial in 1968. In 1984 he was awarded the National Prize of Fine Arts of the Ministry of Culture. His youthful style was soon influenced in a definitive way by abstract expressionism and informalism, although his works never lost reality as a reference. In his production, Hernández Mompó captures a figurative and poetic imagery, harmoniously mixed with abstract elements and rich superimposition effects. Hernández Mompó is represented at the IVAM in Valencia, the Museo Nacional Reina Sofía, the Museo de Arte Abstracto in Cuenca, the British Museum in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Chase Manhattan Bank Collection in New York and the Winterthur Museum in Switzerland, among many others.