Modest Cuixart (1925-2007) - Untitled

Cuixart initially studied medicine, but soon abandoned his studies to devote himself to painting, and enrolled in the Free Academy of Painting in Barcelona. In 1948 he participated in the founding of the group Dau al Set, together with Brossa, Ponç, Tàpies and Tharrats, among others. Concerned with the plastic value of the sign, his work from the beginning bears a strong kinship with Surrealism, as well as a great sensitivity to the expressive force of color. Around 1955 he immersed himself in material informality, which would lead him to use “grattage” in works with a certain orientalist taste. In 1959 he won the first prize at the São Paulo Biennial and exhibited at the Documenta in Kassel, and the following year he participated in an exhibition of Spanish avant-garde held at the Tate Gallery in London and at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Cuixart introduced collage into his work in 1962, which gradually led him toward pop art. Enriched by all these experiences, he returns once again to flat painting, attaining a very personal critical realism that synthesizes expressionism with a dramatically transformed figuration, always valuing the chromatic qualities. In the seventies he exhibited in numerous national and international capitals, such as Paris, Madrid, São Paulo, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Basel, Barcelona and Milan, among others. In the following decade, Cuixart gradually freed his painting from aggressive aspects to give it a more lyrical tone. Additionally, he participated in a collective exhibition at the UNESCO Palace in Paris, received the Cross of Saint George from the Generalitat of Catalonia, and the Cross of Isabel the Catholic. In 1988 he carried out a retrospective exhibition in Japan, in the cities of Kobe and Tokyo. He continues to work with exuberant colors and shapes, and reintroduces into his work a more material figuration. In 1998 a foundation bearing his name was created in Palafrugell, and the following year he was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts by the Ministry of Culture. He is represented in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Tate Gallery in London, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Contemporary Art Museums of Madrid, Barcelona and Saint-Étienne (France), the Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, the Museum of Contemporary Spanish Engraving in Marbella, the University of São Paulo Art Museum, the Museum of Abstract Art of Cuenca and the Ampurdán, among many others.