Manolo Hugué

MANOLO HUGUÉ (Barcelona, 1872 – Caldas de Montbui, Barcelona, 1945).
“Landscape”.
Oil on cardboard.
Signed by incision in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 36 x 35 cm; 55 x 56 cm (frame).

Manuel Martínez Hugué, known as Manolo Hugué, trained at the Escuela de la Lonja in Barcelona. In 1900, he moved to Paris, where he lived for ten years. There, he worked on jewelry design and small-scale sculptures, influenced by the work of his friend, the sculptor and goldsmith Paco Durrio. Between 1910 and 1917, devoting himself entirely to sculpture, he worked in Ceret, where he gathered a diverse group of artists, including Juan Gris, Joaquín Sunyer, and, once again, Picasso. During these years, he held exhibitions in Barcelona, Paris, and New York. In 1932, he was appointed a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Saint George in Barcelona. In Hugué’s work, the essential element is the relationship with nature, considering the human figure as an integral part of it. His artistic output blends Mediterranean tradition, Greek classicism and archaism, and the art of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia with the European avant-garde that he assimilated and experienced firsthand, specifically Matisse’s Fauvism and Cubism. Works by Hugué are held at the MACBA, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, and the Reina Sofía National Art Museum, among many others.