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27 - Manolo Millares (1926-1972), Cuadro (1) , 1960, mixed techni…
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Estimate CHF 100,000 - CHF 150,000
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Description
Manolo Millares (1926-1972), Cuadro (1) , 1960, mixed technique on jute canvas, signed, countersigned, dated and titled on verso, 100x81 cm Provenance: Galerie 59, Aschaffenburg, Courty Gallery, Copenhagen, Bo Franzen Collection, Stockholm, Dobe Collection, Zürich, Sotheby's Sale, London, 30.06.1988, lot no. 656, Christie's Sale, London, 29.06.1995, lot no. 29, Private Collection, Madrid, Private Collection, Switzerland Bibliography: Alfonso de la Torre, Manolo Millares: pinturas: catálogo razonado, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, 2004, p. 208-209, no. 175, ill. On verso: label of Galerie 59, Aschaffenburg, no. QÜ2, label of Courty Gallery, Copenhagen, no. 928, stamp of the Dobe Collection, Zürich Manolo Milares (1926-1972) - Cuadro Produced in 1960, Cuadro belongs to a decisive moment in the work of Manolo Millares. A founding member of the El Paso group in 1957, the artist established himself as one of the leading figures of the Spanish Informel movement. By this time, his language was fully affirmed: jute canvas became the very heart of his artistic research. In this work, Millares uses jute as a living material. Torn, stretched, sewn, knotted and repaired, it ceases to be a simple support and becomes a physical, almost corporeal surface. The composition is based on wide black areas, zones of unbleached canvas, gaping openings and a central concentration of folds, ropes and sutures. A red accent, placed with restraint, reinforces the dramatic tension of the whole. This material presence gives the painting an anthropomorphic dimension. The tears evoke wounds, the seams scars, the cavities a fragmented body shape. Millares does not represent the human figure directly, but suggests its vulnerability through the material itself. This orientation foreshadows the Homunculos, ghostly, decomposed figures that were to become one of the major axes of his work. Cuadro's strength also lies in its historical context. In post-war Spain, this raw, wounded and recomposed material carries a profound existential charge. It evokes violence, traumatic memory and survival, without ever falling into illustration. The work remains abstract, but it is shot through with a powerful human and historical tension. Finally, its importance is confirmed by its history: published in Alfonso de la Torre's catalogue raisonne, the work retains on the reverse the labels of Galerie 59, Aschaffenburg, the Courty Gallery, Copenhagen, and the stamp of the Dobe Collection, Zurich. It was sold at Sotheby's London in 1988 and then at Christie's London in 1995, and is now back on the market after nearly thirty years in private collection.
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About the sale LIVE 1 to 37 - Precious objects - Paintings and sculptures
Auction location
Auction time 06/10/2026 at 6:00 PM
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Piguet Hôtel des Ventes Genève
See original version (French)
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