Modest Cuixart (1925-2007) - Sin título

Cuixart initially studied medicine, but soon abandoned his studies to devote himself to painting and enrolled in the Barcelona Free Academy of Painting. In 1948 he helped found 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 shows 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 led 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 in 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 drew 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 liberating his painting from aggressive aspects to give it a more lyrical tone. He also participated in a group exhibition at the UNESCO Palace in Paris, received the Cross of Saint George from the Government of Catalonia, and the Cross of Isabella the Catholic. In 1988 he held an anthological exhibition in Japan, in the cities of Kobe and Tokyo. He continued working with exuberant colors and shapes, and reintroduced 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 Spanish Contemporary Engraving in Marbella, the University of São Paulo Museum of Art, the Cuenca Museum of Abstract Art, and the Ampurdán Museum, among many others.