AgustĂ Puig
The Innocence of Becoming
Agustí Puig
The Innocence of Becoming Franklin Bowles Galleries
San Francisco • New York
AGUSTÍ PUIG The Innocence of Becoming “…the joyous affirmation of the play of the world and of the innocence of becoming…”
T
Jacques Derrida1
he painter Agustí Puig, who was born in Sabadell (Barcelona) in 1957, had his artistic awakening in the mid-1980s, a period of effervescent activity in the field of art in Catalonia, Spain and Europe as a whole. This was the time of the so-called “painting boom,” when artists all over Europe were staging a creative reaction to the conceptual art movements that had dominated the 1970s and had announced the death of pictorial art. Agustí Puig’s generation — the artist coincided in Barcelona with such emerging figures as the painter Miquel Barceló and the sculptor Jaume Plensa — proposed a new, expressive, affirmative, monumental art that did not ignore tradition. In a line similar to that followed by the Italian Transvantgarde movement and German neo-Expressionism, Puig’s painting presented itself as the heir to the predominant styles in European modern avant-garde art: German Expressionism (from Munch to Kieffer), Spanish Informalism (represented by Tàpies, Millares, Clavé and so on) and French and Catalan Oneirism (Joan Miró). His easy juxtaposition of these European painterly movements imbues August Puig’s work with a personal vision as he produces what we might call a new existential figurative art. For Puig does not use figurative art merely ornamentally or gratuitously; rather, the figurative springs from deep feeling, channeled through an empathetic view of human desire, passion and angst. It is not love that emanates from Agustí Puig’s work; it is humanistic passion towards humanity and
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its hesitant journey through what Kierkegaard and Sartre2 call human existence. Agustí’s work is populated by figurative references to people and their quest for realization in a painterly universe reigned over by divided couples, solitary souls, despairing thinkers and ecstatic beings —captured as they labor towards their emotional fullness. Agustí Puig channels his tragic awareness through hybridized expressive forms and techniques that both take inspiration from, and breathe new life into, Catalan and European informalism. His figurative brushstrokes are full of feeling and instinctively fused with brut objects and materials, which reinforce the expressive quality of his painting. Puig accentuates this approach by employing a host of artistic techniques and resources based on experimentation and the transformation of materials. One of his favorite techniques is the use of imprimatura. He often treats a painting as if it were an etching: he applies a first coat, scarred with irregular features, and then transfers his creative universe onto the canvas in a tactile way. At other times, he uses graphic techniques to empty out his work: applying a fresh coat of paint, he makes rips and holes in the support, cutting it with a knife and even, in his most brutal moments, using more radical tools such as mechanical saws. Despite all this, Puig is a lyrical expressionist. He employs his open, proactive use of painterly techniques to lighten the tragic tone that reigns in the undergrowth of his art. On the surface, his work is fluid, almost aquatic; the bodies that predominate in these paintings seem to bubble forth from a mercury source. The material that becomes cracked on his painterly surfaces is nearly always presented as congealed liquid frozen in a state of transformation. This is a transformation that has the gift of condensing, at the same time, gravity and lightness. It is as if, during his painterly journey, the artist took as his own the Nietzschean principle according to which tragic art should include play and entertainment in order to express what the German philosopher calls “the innocence of becoming.”3
We find this playful, naïve facet of Agustí Puig’s painting even more strongly accentuated in his recent work. Matter and tragic experimentation marked his art in the last decade, a time of painterly plenitude, as demonstrated by his exhibitions at the Vila Casas Foundation in Barcelona.4 However, more recently, sharper, brighter colors have begun to play a major role in his art: red, blue and green now accompany the earthy tones and the black and white that generally predominate. These new colors are also applied with a more musical brushstroke. No doubt, this new direction arises from the point that he has reached in his personal and professional life, which reflects his ever more universal gaze and, particularly, his close contact with North American culture, a civilization that is always affirmative, open and active, as opposed to the ever more muggy and existential nature of the European cultural tradition. Only a versatile, multi-faceted artist like Agustí Puig could create a painterly fusion between these two worlds, presenting his art as a joyful, humanist bridge between cultures and civilizations. Albert Mercadé Director artístic Fundació Arranz-Bravo
Jacques Derrida on Nietzsche: Derrida, Jacques. “Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Humanities.” Writing and Difference. Trans. Alan Bass. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1978. 278–293
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Jean Paul Sartre. “L’home i les coses,” 1947
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Friederich Nietchze. “El naixement de la tragèdia”, 1871.
Agustí Puig. Dues de blanc i una de negra. Fundació Vila Casas, December 2008 – January 2009; Agustí Puig. Va voler ser boira i va voler ser vent. Fundació Vila Casas. September 2014 – February 2015.
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Numbered Venus mixed media on canvas 47.5 x 74 in, 122 x 190 cm 2016
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Oneiric: Figures in a Dream mixed media on canvas 58.5 x 71 in, 150 x 183 cm 2016
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Under the Table mixed media on canvas 38 x 51 in, 97 x 130 cm 2014
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Quiet Woman and Chair mixed media on canvas 63 x 51 in, 162 x 130 cm 2016
Focused Woman and Chair mixed media on canvas 63 x 51 in, 162 x 130 cm 2016
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Figure and Red Spots mixed media on paper 39 x 27 in, 99 x 70 cm 2016
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Untitled mixed media on paper 39 x 27 in, 99 x 70 cm 2016
Two Colours Figure bronze 27 x 20 x 7 in, 69 x 51 x 17 cm 2016
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Unfolding Character bronze 40.5 x 23 x 8.5 in, 104 x 58 x 22 cm 2016
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Head and Red, Legs and Dark mixed media on canvas 63 x 51 in, 162 x 130 cm 2016
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Two Figures and Blue Background mixed media on xylographic print 46 x 31 in, 118 x 79 cm 2015
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Wise Man Head bronze 14 x 7 x 3 in, 35 x 18 x 7 cm 2012
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Female Figure and Shawl mixed media on xylographic print 46 x 31 in, 118 x 79 cm 2015
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Female Figure mixed media on xylographic print 46 x 31 in, 118 x 79 cm 2015
Red in Between mixed media on paper 27 x 19.5 in, 70 x 50 cm 2016
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Figures at the Table mixed media on canvas 51 x 63 in, 130 x 162 cm 2015
Hands over Head mixed media on canvas 47.5 x 60 in, 122 x 153 cm 2013
facing page:
Venus Birth mixed media on canvas 78 x 97.5 in, 200 x 250 cm 2012
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left:
Figure with Hat bronze 18 x 4 x 4 in, 47 x 10 x 10 cm 2012 right:
Four Hands Flying Figure bronze 20 x 9 x 4 in, 52 x 23 x 10 cm 2012
facing page:
Oneiric: Dancer and Venus mixed media on canvas 66 x 78 in, 170 x 200 cm 2016
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Two Figures and Forest mixed media on paper 21 x 30 in, 55 x 75 cm 2015
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Woman and Dog mixed media on paper 14 x 12 in, 36 x 30 cm 2015
Girl and the Clock’s Door mixed media on paper 30 x 21 in, 76 x 55 cm 2015
Nude and Years mixed media on paper 39 x 27 in, 99 x 70 cm 2016
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The Running Through mixed media on canvas 33 x 52 in, 84 x 133 cm 2016
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Figures and Red Face mixed media on canvas 71 x 58.5 in, 183 x 150 cm 2016
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Red Face Opened Arms mixed media on xylographic print 46 x 31 in, 118 x 79 cm 2015
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Figure Passing Through mixed media on canvas 51 x 64 in, 130 x 163 cm 2008
Figures, One D reaming mixed media on canvas 51 x 63 in, 130 x 162 cm 2008
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facing page:
Three Venuses and Red Face mixed media on paper 24.5 x 35 in, 63 x 90 cm 2015
Nude and Hand mixed media on paper 35 x 24.5 in, 90 x 63 cm 2015
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Table mixed media on canvas 57 x 44 in, 146 x 114 cm 2014
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The Double mixed media on canvas 63 x 51 in, 162 x 130 cm 2010
facing page:
Venus at the Sea mixed media on canvas 97.5 x 125 in, 250 x 320 cm 2012
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INDEX Bronze 18 Figure with Hat 18 Four Hands Flying Figure 9 Two Colours Figure 10 Unfolding Character 13 Wise Man Head Mixed media on canvas * Crossing Figure in Blue 30 Female Figures at the Bath 25 Figure Passing Through 23 Figures and Red Face 17 Figures at the Table 25 Figures, One Dreaming 7 Focused Woman and Chair 17 Hands over Head 11 Head and Red, Legs and Dark 4 Numbered Venus 5 Oneiric: Figures in a Dream 19 Oneiric: Dancer and Venus 7 Quiet Woman and Chair 28 Table 28 The Double 22 The Running Through 6 Under the Table 29 Venus at the Sea 16 Venus Birth ** Walking Figures and Red Foot
Mixed media on paper 8 Figure and Red Spots 21 Girl and the Clock’s Door 27 Nude and Hand 21 Nude and Years 15 Red in Between 26 Three Venuses and Red Face 20 Two Figures and Forest 8 Untitled 20 Woman and Dog Mixed media on xylographic print 14 Female Figure 14 Female Figure and Shawl 24 Red Face Opened Arms 12 Two Figures and Blue Background * Front cover ** Back cover
WINTER 2016 project managers:
Stacey Bellis Ken Amorino photographer:
Dani Rovira-Soler
Female Figures at the Bath mixed media on canvas 71 x 58.5 in, 183 x 150 cm 2016
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photo editor:
Scott Saraceno catalog design:
Susan Tsuchiya
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