Manuel Pinazo (1956) - Reflexiones

Artist: Manuel Pinazo
Sagunto 1956

Reflections
Work painted with natural pigments on canvas glued to board
With dimensions 61.5 x 62.5 cm without frame (63 x 64 cm) with frame
This work is a reflection on the commission that M. ROTHKO received for the “Four Seasons Restaurant” in New York
After signing a contract to paint 50 square meters of the restaurant he broke the agreement upon seeing that in that restaurant the nouveaux riches would dine, deciding that never would one of his paintings serve as decoration for such a place
Currently those paintings are in the Tate Gallery in London as a donation from the artist
The REFLECTION is whether art is for a few or for everyone
In Pinazo’s painting there is a grouping of 6 small pictures forming one and united in the center with bars painted with gold pigments to contrast the reflection

THE EXPANDED GEOMETRY
By Pedro Alberto Cruz

The abstract language in which Manuel Pinazo’s entire production unfolds is a direct consequence of the reworking that geometric rigor underwent during postmodernity, as well as the expansion that painting is carrying out beyond its traditional limits. The first distinguishing element of his painting is the introduction of error, of “imperfection” in the translation of certain geometric schemes with a long tradition since the vanguards. Pinazo’s work repeats compositional models based on parallel vertical or horizontal bands of different colors, checkered patterns, or the repetition of geometric figures such as the rectangle. When one examines, in detail, each of these compositions, one notices how the cold rationalism on which geometric abstraction is founded has been subverted by the insertion of different irregularities: slightly inclined lines that therefore are not completely straight; different spacing between the various color bands; verticals that are interrupted and break the rhythm of the work; or, evidently, the cheerful color—with echoes of Matisse—and at times with an air of naïveté, which undermines that metaphysical authority that oozes from much of Vanguard geometric abstraction.
But Pinazo’s deconstruction of abstract geometry does not stop at this first level of critique. There is, furthermore, a “second level,” which the artist has been consolidating over the years and which yields interesting conclusions. First, and in a line of work continuing the post-pictorial abstraction of the 80s, the author plays with the sculptural potential of painting by bringing together several pieces that dynamize the traditional idea of contour/square or rectangular frame.