This is fulfilled by 2022 50th anniversary of Manolo Millares’ death (Las Palmas, 1926-Madrid, 1972), Spain and one of the best artists of the second half of the 20th century. “one of the most groundbreaking”, Its echo is still felt in many artists today.
This event was an excuse for MACA to show their respect to this creator. The hero of the renewal of plastic tongues in the 50s and 60sFirstly Ladac canary group then from the El Paso group, of which he was one of the founders.
this is how it was built Now the rush stoppedAn exhibition of Millares’ own works and accompanied by the works of the artists who made it fragments framed by abstraction, of the pioneers pioneers in paris for Spanish informalAs stated by Rosa Castells, curator of MACA and curator of this exhibition, which can be seen on the first floor of the museum. until September 2023.
Millares’ last serigraphs
“We wanted to pay tribute to this figure from MACA and its relationship with Eusebio Sempere through pieces that we pay a little homage to. 20th Century Art Collection”, stands out. Among them, Diary of an imaginary and baroque goose“a magnificent silkscreen portfolio of 12 originals, the last before his death” Print Abel Martín in 1971; Two pieces we collected by Manolo Millares de la Ars Citerior Collection and an excellent burlap from the Fundación Mediterráneo fund, exhibited for the first time in the museum”.
This folder is “one of the finest silkscreen pieces ever printed by Abel Martín. At that time Millares was a a kind of baroque calligraphy, It is like an excavation diary with its little drawings, where nothing is read, the message is not perceived, but because of its beauty it is one of its best pieces.”
As for the burlap from the Fundación Mediterráneo Collection, “we’ve been trying for a while to bring out this perfect piece that doesn’t fit the other rhetoric in the collection, but it does.”
From Miró to Braque
Millares also lives by the pieces Joan Miró, George Braque, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Antonio Saura, Antoni Tàpies, Sarah Grilo, Maryan Pinchas, Georges Mathieu and Jean Fautrier. “With this piece core, we built a story around the abstract experiences of her figure,” says Rosa Castells.
Antonio Gomez Square Fundación Mediterráneo’s coach said that Millares burlap “maybe one of the artist’s best works‘ and exhibited in New York before being acquired by the then Obra Social de la CAM. Exhibited for the first time at MACAIt’s time to show it off and it was worth the wait because the work is amazing”.
According to the Cultural Council Member, Eusebio Sempere, Juana Frances and the El Paso group form the main axis of the exhibition. Antonio Manresa. “This commendation given to him at MACA relates to these three points and also to the Fundación Mediterráneo and the Ars Citerior Collection” Javier BadenesNephew of Abel Martin.
Social and political awareness
Millares’ interest Aboriginal Canarian culture, archeology and anthropology It manifests itself from his early paintings on surrealism to his informal paintings that break the flatness of the canvas.
This pictorial experiment the use of pallets in wooden frames is reduced to three colors: white, black and red and inclusion burlap that thorns, tears and mends, while developing a social and political awareness pIn line with the spirit of the times, it leaves its mark on all his artistic production, torn and somewhat disturbing.
Canvas as a battlefield in the gloomy years of thistle and ash; The idea of material death, the shroud, mummies, tombs, burial mounds and tombs, destruction itself, is stripped of its essence in his works. Although always fascinated by sign and spelling, Around 1970, he incorporated invented writing into his insane work. Developing a bizarre calligraphy that goes from graffiti to arabesque with baroque memories.
With chinese ink and smoke gray watercolorHe writes words, sentences and paragraphs that remind one of the 17th century calligraphy, but in which nothing can be understood, let alone the rational meaning of the message.