Modest Cuixart (1925-2007) - Untitled

Cuixart initially studied medicine, but soon abandoned his studies to devote himself to painting, and joined the Free Painting Academy of 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 outset has a strong kinship with surrealism, as well as a great sensitivity to the expressive force of color. Around 1955 he immersed himself in material informalism, which would lead him to use the “grattage” in works with a certain Orientalizing taste. In 1959 he won the first prize at the São Paulo Biennale and exhibited at Documenta in Kassel, and the following year he participated in an avant-garde Spanish exhibition held at the Tate Gallery in London and at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Cuixart introduced collage into his work in 1962, which would gradually move him toward pop art. Enriched by all these experiences, he returned to flat painting, achieving a very personal critical realism that synthesizes expressionism with dramatically transformed figuration, always valuing 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 began to free his painting from aggressive aspects to give it a more lyrical tone. Additionally, he participated in a group 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 held an anthological exhibition in Japan, in the cities of Kobe and Tokyo. He continues working with exuberant colors and shapes, and reintegrates a more material figuration into his work. In 1998 the 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 Museum of Art of the University of São Paulo, the Museum of Abstract Art of Cuenca and the Ampurdán (Empordà), among many others.