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Manolo Millares

Cuadro No. 82 (Painting No. 82)

1960

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Manolo Millares was associated with Spanish informalismo, a postwar form of artistic expression characterized by dense materiality, intentionally crude paint application, and unconventional materials such as wire, burlap, and sand. Millares’s version of abstraction was embedded in the political context of postwar Spain, both its newfound internationalism and the brutality of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco’s repressive regime. Millares utilized aspects of international abstract and expressive painting that he would have seen in exhibitions throughout Europe, including Documenta 2 in 1959. His work embodies explicit violence; he often ripped apart the surface, leaving gaping holes. Painting No. 82 is one such work, from a series made of torn and stained burlap. Here the canvas leaves part of the support bare, opening up the pictorial space like a wound and suggesting the potential for destruction and transience as it intruded into everyday life at the time. [Permanent collection label, 2016]

  • Artist Manolo Millares (Spanish, 1926–1972)
  • Title Cuadro No. 82 (Painting No. 82)
  • Date 1960
  • Medium Oil on torn burlap
  • Dimensions unframed | 39 x 52 1/4 in.
  • Credit line Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard K. Weil, 1972
  • Object number WU 4498
  • Currently on View James M. Kemper Gallery, Room 1

From Picasso to Fontana: Collecting Modern and Postwar Art in the Eisendrath Years, 1960–1968
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/23/2015 - 04/19/2015

Gesture, Scrape, Combine, Calculate: Postwar Abstraction from the Permanent Collection
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 08/20/2010 - 09/20/2010

International Abstraction: Art of the 1950s from the Washington University Collections
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/22/1999 - 03/28/1999

Modernism at Midstream: From Europe to America and Back Again
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/04/1983 - 11/06/1983

Manolo Millares: Recent Paintings
Pierre Matisse Gallery (New York, New York), 04/12/1960 - 05/07/1960

1972
Mr. and Mrs. Richard K. Weil

Inscription Recto, lower right corner, in black paint: MILLARES

Inscription Verso, upper center on stretcher, in black paint: MILLARES-CUADRO 82

Inscription [on verso at LL of stretcher, small white oval label] [written in black marker:] I-8

This artwork record may be incomplete or need refinement. Our staff actively researches the collection and revises records when new information is available. If you have questions or comments about this record, please contact us.