José Manuel Broto

JOSÉ MANUEL BROTO (Zaragoza, 1949).
Untitled. Paris, 1986.
Oil on canvas.
Signed, dated, and located.
Measurements: 195 x 130 cm; 197 x 132 cm (frame).

The central figure emerges as a hybrid that is difficult to classify, a presence that evokes the silhouette of a suspended bird, but whose identity is deliberately dissolved by abstraction. This ambiguity is one of the most evocative features of the artist’s style during the 1980s. The composition reflects a period marked by a more gestural and textural style of painting, in which the surface takes on a central role. The thickness of the pigment, the incisions, and the reliefs construct a pictorial surface charged with tension, while the palette—dominated by deep blacks, fiery ochres, and earthy reds—creates a powerful contrast between darkness and light. In 1986, José Manuel Broto was undergoing one of the most significant transformations of his career. After settling in Paris in 1985, his painting underwent a decisive shift: he definitively abandoned his last ties to figuration to develop a fully abstract language, though one always imbued with organic evocations and references to nature, as seen in this painting

José Manuel Broto is one of the leading figures in contemporary Spanish abstraction. In 1973, he co-founded the Trama Group, alongside Javier Rubio, Xavier Grau, and Gonzalo Tena. Among his most notable exhibitions are those held at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), the IVAM (Valencia), the Museo Patio Herreriano (Valladolid), the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, the Andalusian Center for Contemporary Art (Seville), the MACBA (Barcelona), as well as numerous exhibitions at leading galleries such as Soledad Lorenzo, Carles Taché, Marlborough, and Miguel Marcos. In 1995, he was awarded the National Prize for Visual Arts. He has also received other important institutional honors, including the Aragón-Goya Prize. His work is part of prominent public and private collections, including the Reina Sofía National Art Center (Madrid), the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), the IVAM (Valencia), the Andalusian Center for Contemporary Art (Seville), the Patio Herreriano Museum (Valladolid), the Bilbao Museum of Fine Arts, the Bank of Spain Collection, the ;la Caixa; Foundation Collection, the Helga de Alvear Collection, and numerous institutional and private collections both in Spain and abroad.