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 realizing that the new rich would dine there, deciding that never would one of his paintings serve as decoration for a place like that
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 joined in the center with bars painted of 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 reinvention that geometric rigor experienced during postmodernity, as well as of the expansion that painting is undertaking beyond its traditional boundaries. The first singularizing element of his painting is the introduction of error, of “imperfection” in the translation of certain geometric schemes with a long tradition dating from 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 built has been subverted by the insertion of irregularities: lines slightly inclined and thus not completely straight; different spacing between the various color bands; verticals that are interrupted and break the rhythm of the work; or, obviously, the cheerful color—with echoes of Matisse in some cases—and at times with a naïve feel, which undermines the metaphysical authority that radiates from much of the vanguard geometric abstraction.
But Pinazo’s process of deconstructing abstract geometry does not stop at this first level of critique. There exists, moreover, a “second level” that the artist has been consolidating over the years and that yields some interesting conclusions. First, and in a line of work continuing the post-pictorial abstraction of the 1980s, the author plays with the sculptural potential of painting through the assembly of several pieces that dynamite the traditional idea of a square or rectangular contour/frame.