Viola, Manuel | Colección

20th Century Spanish

A self-taught artist, Viola joined the Catalan avant-garde at the early age of fifteen through his participation in Art, a magazine to which he contributed with poems and drawings in a surrealist style. In 1934 he moved to Barcelona where he became a member of the Amigos de las Artes Nuevas
Known under the acronym ADLAN, this group comprised a number of artists and cultural promoters which emerged in 1932 in Barcelona and disbanded after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Headed by Joan Prats (1891-1970), Josep Lluís Sert (1902-1983) and Joaquín Gomis (1902-1991), its goal was to support and promote avant-garde movements by organising exhibitions throughout Spain, to raise awareness among the wider public of the cutting-edge movements that were then being developed in the country.
group.

At the end of the Spanish Civil War he was forced into exile in France. There, he joined the clandestine surrealist group Le Main à Plume. In 1949 he returned to Spain, and took his first steps in Informalism
Term coined by the French art critic Michel Tapié (under the name of art informel) to define the art movement that covers a whole range of abstract and gestural trends that emerged in Europe in the 1940s in parallel with the development of
Abstract Expressionism
This contemporary painting movement emerged within the field of abstraction in the 1940s in the United States, from where it spread worldwide. Rooted in similar premises and postulates as Surrealism, the Abstract Expressionist artists regarded the act of painting as a spontaneous and unconscious activity, a dynamic bodily action divested of any kind of prior planning. The works belonging to this movement are defined by the use of pure, vibrant primary colours that convey a profound sense of freedom. The movement’s main pioneers were, among others, Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) and Hans Hoffman (1880-1966). Leading Spanish exponents of the movement are Esteban Vicente (1903-2001) and José Guerrero (1914-1991), who lived for some time in New York City, where they were in first-hand contact with the many artistic innovations taking place there around that time.
in America. The movement is defined by a non-figurative language that lends a very significant role to the use of materials. The defining moment for Informalismo in Spain was in the 1950s, with a generation of artists whose languages embraced both European Art Informel and American
Abstract Expressionism
This contemporary painting movement emerged within the field of abstraction in the 1940s in the United States, from where it spread worldwide. Rooted in similar premises and postulates as Surrealism, the Abstract Expressionist artists regarded the act of painting as a spontaneous and unconscious activity, a dynamic bodily action divested of any kind of prior planning. The works belonging to this movement are defined by the use of pure, vibrant primary colours that convey a profound sense of freedom. The movement’s main pioneers were, among others, Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) and Hans Hoffman (1880-1966). Leading Spanish exponents of the movement are Esteban Vicente (1903-2001) and José Guerrero (1914-1991), who lived for some time in New York City, where they were in first-hand contact with the many artistic innovations taking place there around that time.
. These included, among others, Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012), Josep Guinovart (1927-2007), August Puig (1929-1999), Antonio Saura (1930-1998), Manolo Millares (1926-1972) and Rafael Canogar (1935).
, particularly after joining the El Paso Group
founded in 1957 and formed by artists Antonio Saura, Manuel Millares, Rafael Canogar, Manuel Rivera, Antonio Suárez, Pablo Serrano and the critics José Ayllón y Manuel Conde. This group was instrumental in promoting avant-garde art in post-war Spain. Its style and manifesto dovetailed with the European movement known as Art Informel and Informalismo, its variant in Spain. Notwithstanding the strong individuality of each one of its members, the artworks produced by the collective shared a marked visual consistency, expressed in the abstraction of the figure, experimentation with new materials removed from convention uses, individual expressiveness and the triumph of gesture and matter.
in 1958, which was instrumental in attracting greater attention to his work at the time.

His first solo show took place in 1956 at Galería Estilo in Madrid. From this moment Viola began to include his pieces in multiple exhibitions in Spain and abroad, with special presence in France, where he organized two exhibits at Galerie Claude Bernard in 1957 and in Galerie Internationale d’Art Contemporain in 1963.

Influenced by the post-war avant-gardes and close to the
tachisme
deriving from the French word “tache” (stain or spot), the name of this movement was coined by the French critics Charles Estienne and Pierre Guéguen and popularised by an essay written by another art critic: Michel Tapié. Born as a reaction to
Cubism
A term coined by the French critic Louis Vauxcelles (1870-1943) to designate the art movement that appeared in France in 1907 thanks to Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque (1882-1963), which brought about a definitive break with traditional painting. Widely viewed as the first avant-garde movement of the twentieth century, its main characteristic is the representation of nature through the use of two-dimensional geometric forms that fragment the composition, completely ignoring perspective. This visual and conceptual innovation meant a huge revolution and played a key role in the development of twentieth-century art.
and often considered to be the European equivalent to Abstract Expressionism, Tachisme is characterised by spontaneous brushwork, dripping and blobs of paint straight from the tube, and sometimes scribbling reminiscent of Japanese calligraphy.

movement in France and Informalism
Term coined by the French art critic Michel Tapié (under the name of art informel) to define the art movement that covers a whole range of abstract and gestural trends that emerged in Europe in the 1940s in parallel with the development of
Abstract Expressionism
This contemporary painting movement emerged within the field of abstraction in the 1940s in the United States, from where it spread worldwide. Rooted in similar premises and postulates as Surrealism, the Abstract Expressionist artists regarded the act of painting as a spontaneous and unconscious activity, a dynamic bodily action divested of any kind of prior planning. The works belonging to this movement are defined by the use of pure, vibrant primary colours that convey a profound sense of freedom. The movement’s main pioneers were, among others, Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) and Hans Hoffman (1880-1966). Leading Spanish exponents of the movement are Esteban Vicente (1903-2001) and José Guerrero (1914-1991), who lived for some time in New York City, where they were in first-hand contact with the many artistic innovations taking place there around that time.
in America. The movement is defined by a non-figurative language that lends a very significant role to the use of materials. The defining moment for Informalismo in Spain was in the 1950s, with a generation of artists whose languages embraced both European Art Informel and American
Abstract Expressionism
This contemporary painting movement emerged within the field of abstraction in the 1940s in the United States, from where it spread worldwide. Rooted in similar premises and postulates as Surrealism, the Abstract Expressionist artists regarded the act of painting as a spontaneous and unconscious activity, a dynamic bodily action divested of any kind of prior planning. The works belonging to this movement are defined by the use of pure, vibrant primary colours that convey a profound sense of freedom. The movement’s main pioneers were, among others, Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) and Hans Hoffman (1880-1966). Leading Spanish exponents of the movement are Esteban Vicente (1903-2001) and José Guerrero (1914-1991), who lived for some time in New York City, where they were in first-hand contact with the many artistic innovations taking place there around that time.
. These included, among others, Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012), Josep Guinovart (1927-2007), August Puig (1929-1999), Antonio Saura (1930-1998), Manolo Millares (1926-1972) and Rafael Canogar (1935).
in Spain, Viola forged a highly personal style defined by violent brushwork and by contrasting lights and shadows. His work has been seen in survey exhibitions held in 1971 at Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo in Madrid, and in 1978 at La Lonja in Zaragoza. This last-named city also presented the artist with its Gold Medal in 1980.

His works may be found in the collections of major art institutions such as Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and Fundación Juan March, Madrid; Museo de Arte Abstracto Español, Cuenca and Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Manuel Viola