P00964 Despegando | Colección

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Manuel Viola

(Zaragoza, 1916 – San Lorenzo del Escorial, Madrid, 1987)

Despegando (Taking Flight)

1970

oil on canvas

114 x 194 cm

Inv. no. P00964

BBVA Collection Spain

Manuel Viola is one of the main exponents 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 Spain. After the Spanish Civil War he went into exile to France where he had his first contact with Surrealism. On returning to Spain, his practice gradually moved closer to

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

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

. 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).

and to a use of colour which he then abandoned for some years in favour of black and white, although returning to colour once again.

This work, created two years before Viola’s survey exhibition at La Lonja, in Zaragoza, belongs to a period when he was reintroducing colour and his gestural style was already well-established, working with strong contrasts of light and shadow and with a certain violence as well as playing with the tempo of oil paint itself, blending some tones and leaving others in their original form depending on the desired composition.

Viola was a poet before being a painter and his dedication to painting did not prevent him from writing beautiful poems. Furthermore, his literary gift is patent in the titles he gives to many of his works. In Despegando (Taking Off) we can let our imagination fly and see in the light a flash of flapping wings, but we could also evoke a metaphorical action, a leap into the void, towards the unknown, towards that darkness that becomes light.

Manuel Viola

Despegando (Taking Flight)

1970

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