Modest Cuixart i Tàpies

Mediterranea oil on canvas painting woman portrait

c.1990

CUIXART I TÀPIES, Modest (Barcelona, 1925 - Palafrugell, Girona, 2007). He cuixart initially studied medicine, but soon abandoned his studies to devote himself to painting, and entered the Free Academy of Painting in Barcelona. In 1948 he participates in the foundation of the Dau al Set group, along with Brossa, Ponç, Tàpies and Tharrats, among others. Concerned about the artistic value of the sign, his work has from the beginning a strong relationship with surrealism and a great sensitivity to the expressive power of color. By 1955 he plunges into the material informalism, which will take you to use the "scraping" in works of some orientalizante aftertaste. In 1959 he won first prize of São Paulo Biennale and exhibited at the Documenta in Kassel, and the following year participates in an exhibition of Spanish art held at the Tate Gallery in London and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Cuixart introduced into his work the collage in 1962, which will take you slowly towards pop-art. Enriched by all these experiences, returns to the flat paint, reaching a very personal critical realism, expressionism that synthesizes the dramatically transformed figuration, always valuing the chromatic qualities. In the seventies exhibited in numerous national and international capitals like Paris, Madrid, São Paulo, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Basel, Barcelona and Milan, among others. In the next decade, Cuixart is releasing his painting of the aggressive aspects to give a more lyrical tone. It also participates in a group exhibition at the UNESCO Palace in Paris, he received the Cross of St. George of the Generalitat of Catalonia, and the Cross of Isabel the Catholic. In 1988 a retrospective exhibition in Japan, in the cities of Kobe and Tokyo. Continues to work with exuberant colors and forms, and rejoins his work a matérica figuration. In 1998 the foundation that bears his name in Palafrugell, and the following year he was awarded the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts Ministry of Culture is created. It is represented at the National Centre de Arte Reina Sofia Museum, the Tate Gallery in London, the National Catalan Art, the Contemporary Art in Madrid, Barcelona and Saint-Etienne (France),