Enrique Brinckmann

ENRIQUE BRINKMANN (Málaga, 1938).
"Trilogy", 1977.
Oil on canvas.
It has slight damage to the frame.
Signed, dated and located on the back.
Measurements: 150 x 200 cm: 172 x 221 cm (frame).
The composition is organized around three circular or oval shapes, arranged as autonomous entities but related to each other, suggesting a symbolic structure, almost archetypal, around the number three. These shapes emerge or are embedded in a neutral background, generating a play between appearance and concealment, between surface and depth. One of Brinkmann's most characteristic features is his treatment of pictorial matter. In this work, the surfaces present crackles, glazes and textures that evoke aged walls, dry earth or archaeological remains. This material dimension connects his work with certain currents of European informalism, although in his case always mediated by a strong sense of order and structure. Brinkmann works with recurring forms that act as signs: circles, cavities, fragments, traces. In Trilogía, the three forms can be interpreted as bodies, stones, planets or organic remains, always maintaining an ambiguity that is key to his language.

A self-taught painter and engraver, Brinkmann began painting in the fifties and soon became part of the Picasso Group in Malaga, collaborating in the Mediterranean Art Movement. In 1961 he traveled to Germany, where he spent three years living in the cities of Berlin and Cologne, while maintaining contact with the "Fluxus" group, illustrating musical scores for Cornelius Cardew. Later he settled in Rome to return in 1966 to Malaga and settle in his hometown, although since 1992 he works and resides for long periods in Madrid. He continues with an intense and extensive work, with involvement in workshops and other activities related to the plastic arts. Throughout his prolific career, Enrique Brinkmann has gone through six formative stages, always respecting the essence that characterizes him. Brinkmann has held exhibitions in Spain, the United States, Italy, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland, and has won awards such as the drawing prize at the Autumn Salon of the Haus der Kunst in Munich, the International Painting Festival Cagnes-sur-Mer in France and the National Engraving Prize in Madrid, among others. He is currently represented at the MOMA in New York, the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Albertina in Vienna, the Wallraf-Richartz in Cologne, the Museum of Abstract Art in Cuenca and the Juan March Foundation, among many other public and private institutions.