Lot n° 108
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Manuel Martinez Hugué known as Manolo (1872-1945)... - Lot 108 - Crait + Müller
Manuel Martinez Hugué known as Manolo (1872-1945)
Crouching Catalan Woman, 1925
Terracotta print, n°11/15 Engraved (under the sculpture) : "XI
Label (inside): Galerie Louise Leiris Galerie Simon / 29 bis, rue d'Astorg / Paris (VIIIe) / 1925 / 11 / N°8775 / Manolo / Catalane accroupie / Height 18 cm / Photo N°4541 / edition : 15 prints
18 x 12 x 11,5 cm
Provenance:
Paris, galerie Simon
Paris, Louise Leiriis gallery
France, private collection
In 1923, the Simon Gallery, owned by Daniel Henri Kahnweiler, organized for the first time a personal exhibition of Manolo's work, including recent works and older ones that Kahnweiler had finally been able to recover after his property was sequestered during the First World War.
In an article about the exhibition, Maurice Raynal wrote: "[...] Most of his busts, figures, reliefs, and subjects reflect an intensity of animal life that no other sculptor of the time has achieved. And this is precisely because Manolo only asks his art to achieve this [...]". The exhibition was a great success and Manolo received several commissions, despite the illness that forced him to return to Barcelona before settling permanently in Céret in 1919. La Catalane, painted in 1925, evokes the two monuments that marked the official recognition of his work with two monumental figures of seated women: the Monument to Déodat de Séverac, in Céret, and the Monument to the Dead, in Arles-sur-Tech, erected in 1923.
Influenced by Catalan culture, Manolo offers numerous interpretations of the Catalan figure in his sculptures, which are often very compact, as if in a block of earth, using synthetic volumes and dense forms. Thus, alongside the Catalan woman, we can see the Picador or the Flamenco Dancer.
Already reproduced in 1928 in Josep Pla's first monograph on Manolo, La Catalana has been shown on numerous occasions since its first exhibition in 1929 at the Galerie Simon in Paris and at the home of his colleague Alfred Flechtheim in Germany. Among others, at the Jeu de Paume in 1936, as part of the exhibition L'Art espagnol contem- porain and in the important monographic exhibition devoted to the artist by the Louise Leiris gallery in 1961.
Two labels are present under the terracotta: that of the Simon Gallery (see above) and that of the Louise Leiris Gallery.
In 1941, Kahnweiler saw his gallery close again for "Aryanization procedure": his daughter-in-law Louise Leiris had to buy the gallery in order to preserve it. According to the gallery's records, Kahnweiler produced a 15-copy terracotta edition of La Catalane. To date, only one other copy has been identified and located: it has been in the Baltimore Museum of Art in the United States since 1951.
Manolo (1872-1945)
Born in Barcelona, Manolo joined Picasso in Paris in 1900. For ten years, the sculptor lived the bohemian life, meeting other artists (Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Léon-Paul Fargue) and visiting the museums of the capital. His career as a sculptor did not really begin until 1910, with the help of his friend, the Catalan musician Déodat de Séverac who lived in Céret. Thanks to the support of D.-H. Kahnweiler, his dealer, his work was noticed: he exhibited in New York at the Armory Show in 1913 and then in Germany and Paris. Thereafter, he regularly exhibited his work in the United States, Spain and France. In 1932, France celebrated him with an important exhibition at the Grand Palais.
Related literature
- Josep Pla, Vida de Manolo contada per ell mateix, Sabadell, 1928, pl. XV. repr. (Terra cotta print).
- Manolo, Paris: Galerie Simon, Berlin and Düsseldorf, Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Frankfurt, Galerie Flechtheim & Kahnweiler, 1929, no. 36.
- Pascal Pia, Manolo, Sculpteurs nouveaux, Paris, N.R.F., Gallimard, 1930.
- L'art espagnol contemporain (peinture et sculpture), cat. exp., Paris : Jeu de paume des Tuileries, (12 february - march 1936), Paris, E. Baudelot & Cie, 1936, n°71 (Proof in terra cotta).
- Manuel, Martinez Hugué dit Manolo - Sculptures, gouaches, drawings, cat. exp., Paris : galerie Louise Leiris, (17 May - 17 June 1961), Paris, n°74, repr. (Proof in terracotta).
- Montserrat Blanch, Manolo, sculptures, paintings, drawings, Paris, Éditions Cercle d'Art, 1974, p.244, n°470 (terracotta print).
- Manolo Hugué, cat. exp. Barcelona: Museu d'Art Modern, (February 16-April 15, 1990), Catalunya: Fundació Caixa de Catalunya; Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona, 1990, no. 49, repr. (bronze print no. 15/15).
- Manolo Hugué, 1872-1945, cat. exhibition, Mont-de-Marsan: musée Despiau-Wlérick, (28 June-4 September 1995) - Pon- toise: musée Tavet-Delacour, (16 September-
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