Juan Genovés

JUAN GENOVÉS (Valencia, 1930-Madrid, 2020).
Untitled, 1990.
Acrylic, oil and spray on cardboard.
Framed in museum glass.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 50 x 65 cm; 70 x 84 cm (frame).
At the beginning of the nineties, Juan Genovés was in a stage of full artistic maturity, consolidated both nationally and internationally. After having been a key figure in the Spanish plastic renovation of the sixties and seventies, and a symbolic referent of the democratic transition, in the nineties his career was oriented towards a reaffirmation of his own language, at the same time that he expanded his presence in galleries, fairs and museums in Spain and abroad. It is a moment in which Genovés leaves behind the immediate political urgency - though never its ethical background - and focuses on exploring the universal dimension of his themes: the multitude, coexistence and human fragility.
Aesthetically, his work undergoes a significant purification, as can be seen in this work. The crowds, which had been dense and compact in previous decades, begin to disperse on more luminous and open backgrounds. The tiny bodies, seen from their characteristic zenithal perspective, become more dynamic, configuring compositions where space acquires greater prominence than ever. The tension between the individual and the collective, always present in his production, shifts towards a less dramatic and more reflective reading: instead of representing repression or direct confrontation, Genovés investigates how people group together, dialogue, flow or approach each other.
Technically, the introduction of cleaner surfaces, the more nuanced use of color and the growing importance of emptiness allow for an almost abstract reading of his crowds. Thus, at the beginning of the nineties, his work is situated in a terrain where the social dimension is combined with a formal concern for rhythm, visual density and the poetics of movement. This period represents, in short, a transition towards a more introspective Genovés, who, without abandoning the reference to the collective body, transforms it into an autonomous plastic sign capable of evoking the human condition in its broadest sense.
One of the main exponents of the critical-social realism of the fifties, Juan Genovés studied at the School of Fine Arts in Valencia, and in 1955 he made his first trip to Paris. Over time, his art would evolve along the lines of existentialism. A founding member of several groups, such as Los Siete, Parpalló and Hondo, after his 1965 exhibition at the National Library, his so-called "political realism" made him a committed defender of freedom. His vision makes him truly particular; the human figure is always the protagonist, both in its presence and absence and even in its shadows, in which resides all the dreamlike charge of existential anguish. Genovés starts from a photographic approach, seeking the constant transformation of the motif's perspective, of the point of view. With this change of perspective the author brings us closer or further away from the scene, looking for the movement of the masses guided by the collective, working class intelligence, which gives transcendence to the meaninglessness of the individual experience and makes evident the loneliness, manipulation and injustice to which the human being is exposed. The artist criticizes the mass culture that promotes competitiveness, consumerism, individuality and the loss of social values. Expressive in the use of formats and pictorial materials in contrast to the forcefulness of the subject, Genovés is symbolist in composition and rhythms. In his work he constantly questions the freedom of man in today's society, as well as his own in his production. More recognized abroad than in our country, he has participated in numerous biennials, such as the Hispano-American Biennials in Havana and Barcelona, the Paris Biennial and the World's Fair in New York. In 1994 the IVAM dedicated an important retrospective exhibition to him. He has had solo exhibitions throughout Spain, as well as in Puerto Rico, Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon, Rome, New York, Tokyo, Turin, Berlin, Montreal, Zurich, Bogota and Paris.
Juan Genovés is present in the IVAM in Valencia, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Juan March Foundation, the Centro Nacional de Arte Contemporáneo in Paris, the MOMA in New York and the La Caixa, Argentaria and Thyssen-Bornemisza collections.