The María Cristina Masaveu Peterson Foundation will be presenting this latest exhibition from 7 October to 29 November, as part of its Invited Works programme. It is made up of pieces by Manolo Millares, Manuel Rivera and Susana Solano, which are part of the Masaveu collections representing Art Informel, an artistic movement that rejects geometry and pre-established shapes in order to prioritise the value of the materials themselves and the freedom of pictoral gesture.
Since the 1950s, fabric gained prominence in Spain as a painting medium. Art Informel artists incorporated threads, ropes, stitching and fabrics into their works to break away from the visual plane and address the hardship and gloom of the post-war period.
Manolo Millares started using hessian sacks in 1954. He gradually moved away from the Canarian pictograms that had characterised his earlier work, toning down his colour palette to draw attention to the fabric that was cut, sewn or crumpled into amorphous shapes, and painted with simple planes or drips of basic colours.
The use of unorthodox and hybrid materials also characterised the work of Manuel Rivera, who completely abandoned the use of canvas in around 1956 in favour of commercially available or hand-made metal mesh.
Works by Millares and Rivera were on display in exhibitions that the Museum of Modern Art in New York devoted to assemblage as a characteristic method of the period in the 1970s.
Susana Solano radically moved away from the anti-formal approach of these artists. Her textile experiments in 1979–1980, the beginning of the so-called “New Spanish Sculpture” used folds and stitching to create three-dimensional forms from soft and flexible materials. The piece on display in this hall takes advantage of the malleability of lead to turn the fold into a basic sculptural gesture. The title, Doblec No. 10, refers to this gesture, as well as to the work’s dual role as an abstract sculpture or a tea towel, to which the painted stripes allude.
Image Credit:
- Painting 185 (1962) (Detail). Manuel Millares. Masaveu Collection ©Manolo Millares, VEGAP, Madrid, 2026 © of the reproduction: María Cristina Masaveu Peterson Foundation. Photo: Marcos Morilla
