Manuel Hernández Mompó
Manuel H. Mompó (Valencia, 1927-Madrid, 1992) is an artist of post-war, as some colleagues of the generation of the fifties, was captivated by the spirit of freedom and creativity that came out of the historical avant-garde movements of the first half of the TWENTIETH century, in particular those that resulted in the formation of abstract art. Like other artists born in the next few years to Mompó; Thousands and Saura, members of the group Stepin 1926 and 1930, respectively; the constructivist Andreu Alfaro, in 1929; Angel Duarte, a member of the geometric Team 57, in 1930; it is through the different possibilities of abstraction, whether lyrical or analytic, as these artists rushing into modernity, and leave behind art at the service of the officers and of the power of the time.
But it is the personality and character of an artist which sets up the language of his work, and in these aspects Manuel H. Mompó always made of freedom and independence from the fundamental traits of his person and his work. Standing on the sidelines of the group of artists and of the dogmas in favour of a collective work, as present in the Spain of the 50's and 60's, Mompó shaping your identity by highlighting what the rest hid: the autonomy of the painting, its relationship and proximity to the people and to the simple things, the release of the colour and the form as a means to take the pulse of what was around him, and the incorporation of signs, and letters that added a component of narrative and symbolic to his work, in the tradition of artists such as Klee and Miró. These traits so unique made of Mompó an artist highly recognized by the society of the time, to the point of receiving, in 1968, the UNESCO Award at the XXXIV Venice Biennale, or the design of the poster for the incorporation of Spain in Europe in 1985.
The exposure of Mompó, which opened on the 13th of September within OPENING 2018, brings together a selection of paintings and works on paper that runs from 1955 until 1980, the entire trajectory of the artist, from his first works related to the figurative post-cubist up to their free radical abstraction of your last period. Among the paintings selected are will be able to see key works as a Clown sleeping near the sea, exposed in the hall Clan of Madrid in 1957; Three musicians, exhibited in Paris, Galerie towards a synthesis, in 1961; Another one that stands, exhibited in 1968 in the Pavilion of Spain in the thirty-fourth Venice Biennale. Most of the works belong to a part of the legacy of the artist, and is shaped by historical works and unpublished of extraordinary importance.
With the occasion of the exhibition, the gallery Fernández-Braso, he has edited a catalogue with a text of presentation and analysis of Juan Manuel Bonet and the reprint of an interview of Miguel Fernández-Braso carried out the artist in 1980 in Alaró, Mallorca.
Mompó exhibited his paintings in galleries most important Spanish of the time-Biosca, Juana Mordó, Juana de Aizpuru, Theo, and some of the most important in Europe: Galerie towards a synthesis, Paris; Mortimer Brandt Gallery, New York; Mc Roberts & Tunnard Gallery, London; Claude Bernard, Paris; Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf; Ruth S. Schaffner Gallery, Los Angeles; Gallery Il Collezionista, Rome; Gallery Kaj Forsblom, Helsinki... In Spain, his work is found in major museums and collections, including the Reina Sofia Museum, IVAM, Fundación Juan March, Macba. In 2005 the Reina Sofia Museum and Fundación Telefónica in published the catalogue raisonné of his work.
The relationship of Manuel H. Mompó with the gallery Fernández-Braso dates back to the seventies, starring in so many articles of the Magazine of the Arts Guadalimarfounded in 1975 by Miguel Fernández-Braso. In 1980 he was part of the book of interviews In the workshop. In 1981 he first exhibited in our gallery. The following in 1992, in 2004 and 2018.