Lot Essay
To be included in the forthcoming Manolo Millares Catalogue Raisonné, being prepared by Mrs Elvireta Escobio de Millares in collaboration with the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid
Born in the Canary Islands, Manolo Millares grew up isolated from the artistic tendencies developing at the time in Europe and Spain. A self taught artist his style strongly relates to the arid and volcanic landscape of his native land.
By 1955 Millares had left the provincial islands and settled in Madrid where he founded the El Paso (The Step) movement with fellow artist Antonio Saura. Their goal was to break away from the traditional art establishment in Madrid.
Typically, Millares works from canvases to which he then adds a third dimension, echoing the anarchic volcanic mutation of the surface of the earth. Tearing the canvas in some parts and twisting it in others he creates a counter balance of reliefs and holes. Hardened with glue, the protuberances appear as human forms of twisted torsos and legs stuck to a bath of lava. Even though his palette is mostly reduced to black and white, occasionally, a splash of dark red symbolizes dry blood and emphasizes the human presence.
A quasi-religious connotation in his work finds its context within the powerful religious tradition of Spanish art, and it relates to the black and white crucifixions of Antonio Saura. The knots and caked plaster are here inspired by the mummies in the Archeological Museum in Las Palmas where Millares spent a lot of time as a child.
Created under the Franco regime, one cannot however, eliminate that such abstract representation of a mutilated body could also be a reference to the atrocities commmitted during the Spanish Civil War.
Born in the Canary Islands, Manolo Millares grew up isolated from the artistic tendencies developing at the time in Europe and Spain. A self taught artist his style strongly relates to the arid and volcanic landscape of his native land.
By 1955 Millares had left the provincial islands and settled in Madrid where he founded the El Paso (The Step) movement with fellow artist Antonio Saura. Their goal was to break away from the traditional art establishment in Madrid.
Typically, Millares works from canvases to which he then adds a third dimension, echoing the anarchic volcanic mutation of the surface of the earth. Tearing the canvas in some parts and twisting it in others he creates a counter balance of reliefs and holes. Hardened with glue, the protuberances appear as human forms of twisted torsos and legs stuck to a bath of lava. Even though his palette is mostly reduced to black and white, occasionally, a splash of dark red symbolizes dry blood and emphasizes the human presence.
A quasi-religious connotation in his work finds its context within the powerful religious tradition of Spanish art, and it relates to the black and white crucifixions of Antonio Saura. The knots and caked plaster are here inspired by the mummies in the Archeological Museum in Las Palmas where Millares spent a lot of time as a child.
Created under the Franco regime, one cannot however, eliminate that such abstract representation of a mutilated body could also be a reference to the atrocities commmitted during the Spanish Civil War.