Agustí Puig "Figure and Form" (2018)

Agustí Puig FIGURE AND FORM

Agustí Puig

FIGURE AND FORM FRANKLIN BOWLES GALLERIES San Francisco / New York

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Agustí Puig Figure and Form “Born in 1957 in Sabadell, Spain (near Barcelona), Agustí Puig came of age as an artist in the 1980s, a decade of multiple returns. Foremost was the resurgence of painting’s status as a progressive medium in both the United States and in Europe: as a corrective to the cool austerity of conceptual art and the ephemerality of performance, there was a palpable desire among artists and viewers alike to interact with sensuous objects.

The mechanistic aesthetic of Photorealism gave way to a renewal of the expressive gesture, which had fallen out of fashion since the heyday of Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s. But expressionism in the 1980s did not necessarily appear in tandem with abstraction, as figurative painting made a decisive comeback as well. Along with the return of the figure came content, narrative, myth, and symbolism, all of which were previously decried by Modernist critics as retrograde. As with the Neo-Expressionists in Germany and the Transavantguardia in Italy, Puig was among the artists who began again to grapple with the ability of painting to picture ineffable sensations that lay beyond the contours of the ordinary sensible world.”* Franklin Bowles Galleries is proud to represent Agustí Puig since 2012 to a growing international audience.

*Paula Burleigh, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History and Gallery Director, Allegheny College

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Tallest figure in between 2018 mixed media on canvas 48 x 63 in 122 x 160 cm

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Figure behind red mirror 2018 mixed media on paper 39 x 27.5 in 100 x 70 cm

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Ingravity 2018 mixed media on canvas 72 x 59 in 183 x 150 cm

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Face in the middle 2018 mixed media on canvas 64 x 51 in 162 x 130 cm

Two faces in the middle 2018 mixed media on canvas 64 x 51.25 in 162 x 130 cm

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Figure and chair 2018 mixed media on canvas 67 x 48 in 170 x 122 cm

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Guitar 2018 mixed media on canvas 59 x 47 in 150 x 119 cm

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FACING PAGE:

Two figures 2018 mixed media on canvas 67 x 48 in 170 x 122 cm

Numbers in white 2018 mixed media on paper 19.75 x 27.5 in 50 x 70 cm

Holding head one line 2018 mixed media on paper 19.75 x 27.5 in 50 x 70 cm

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She reads 2018 mixed media on canvas 48 x 45.5 in 122 x 115 cm

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Figure with wavy hair 2018 mixed media on paper 19.75 x 27.5 in 50 x 70 cm

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On the birth of Venus 2018 mixed media on canvas 59.25 x 72.75 in 150 x 185 cm

FACING PAGE:

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Woman: digits 2018 mixed media on paper 39 x 27.5 in 100 x 70 cm

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Woman: hands-head 2018 mixed media on paper 39 x 27.5 in 100 x 70 cm

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Woman: moon 2018 mixed media on paper 39 x 27.75 in 100 x 70 cm

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Red figure on dark background 2018 mixed media on paper 39 x 27.5 in 100 x 70 cm

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Black and white 2018 mixed media on paper 19.6 x 27.5 in 50 x 70 cm

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Pause 2018 mixed media on canvas 39.5 x 48 in 100 x 122 cm

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One seated figure, one crossing 2018 2018 mixed media on canvas 79 x 49.25 in 200 x 125 cm

Against different layers 2018 mixed media on canvas 64 x 51 in 162 x 130 cm

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Female and minotaur – diptych 2018 mixed media on canvas 82.5 x 95 in 210 x 242 cm

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Red figure in between 2018 mixed media on canvas 49.5 x 79 in 126 x 201 cm

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One figure at the window 2018 mixed media on paper 27.5 x 19.6 in 70 x 50 cm

Female figure 2018 mixed media on paper 19.6 x 27.5 in 50 x 70 cm

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The other hand 2018 mixed media on canvas 57.75 x 45 in 146 x 114 cm

APBS 2018 mixed media on canvas 64 x 51 in 162 x 130 cm

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Woman: red 2018 mixed media on paper 39 x 27.5 in 100 x 70 cm

Woman: behind the table 2018 mixed media on paper 39 x 27.5 in 100 x 70 cm

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Woman: dance 2018 mixed media on paper 39 x 27.5 in 100 x 70 cm

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Woman: look-behind 2018 mixed media on paper 39 x 27.5 in 100 x 70 cm

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Woman: thought 2018 mixed media on paper 39 x 27.5 in 100 x 70 cm

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Woman: stay 2018 mixed media on paper 39 x 27.5 in 100 x 70 cm

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Woman: observe 2018 mixed media on paper 39 x 27.5 in 100 x 70 cm

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Woman: man 2018 mixed media on paper 39 x 27.5 in 100 x 70 cm

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“Beckoning us, whispering, witnessing crying out, Puig’s figures seem to wrestle with the question that has occupied man since the beginning of time, What does it mean to be human?”

Larissa Bailiff, New York-based Art Historian

AGUSTÍ PUIG (Spanish, b. 1957) Agustí Puig studied at the art schools Escola Massana and Cercle Artistic Sant Lluc in Barcelona, but says he learned his real craft in the studios of fellow artists. He focuses on painting, especially large format works, but he also creates ceramics and sculptures, prints, and is interested in all aspects of graphic design.

Puig had his artistic awakening in the mid-1980s, a period of intense activity in the field of art in Catalonia, Spain and Europe as a whole, when artists all over Europe were staging a creative reaction to the conceptual art movements that had dominated the 1970s. Agustí Puig’s generation proposed a new, expressive, affirmative, monumental art that embraced tradition. Puig’s painting presents itself as the heir to the predominant styles in European modern avant-garde art: German Expressionism (from Munch to Kiefer), Spanish Informalism (represented by Tàpies, Millares, Clavé) and French and Catalan Oneirism (Joan Miró).

Painting in a style known as pintura matèrica in which non-traditional art materials are used and incorporated into the final works; Puig applies paint in a thick and almost brutal manner. Scraping and scarring the canvases, dripping and working with brooms as paint brushes, these very physical methods are freeing and give him a more authentic approach to the creative process and his engagement with the subject of the human figure remains a constant.

In 2014, Puig was honored with a one-man exhibition at the Can Framis Museum in Barcelona, which now houses a permanent exhibition of his work. This museum is part of the Vila Casas Foundation which opened in 1986 to promote and highlight the leading artists of Spain from 1960 to the present and is now viewed throughout Europe as an important venue for contemporary art.

Puig lives and works in a studio that was formerly a textile mill; it is located in Sabadell City, about 30 km north of Barcelona.

Selected Solo Exhibitions: 2018 Creating Your Own Cosmicity, Centre Cultural Terrassa, Terrassa, Spain 2016 Fragility in Art: The painted house of Agustí Puig, Centre Cultural el Carme Finestra nova, Badalona, Spain Des de la cambra, Centre Cultural Mercè, Girona, Spain

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2015 Va voler ser boira i va voler ser vent, Can Framis, Barcelona, Spain 100 engravings by Roma in the art and creation space Can Manyé, Alella, Spain 2014 Can Framis Museum (September 2014 – February 2015) Barcelona, Spain 2009 Dues de blanc i una de negre, Fundació Vila Casas, Espai Volart 2, Barcelona, Spain Palau Falguera Cultural Center, St. Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain 2008 Peintures et Céramiques, Conseil Général de Haute-Garonne, St.Bertrand-de-Comminges, France 2004 Idediari: 1992-2004 , Sabadell Art Museum, Barcelona, Spain 2001 Sala Pelaires, Centre Cultural Contemporani Pelaires, Palma de Mallorca, Spain 2000 Art 2000, Museu Palau Solterra, Torroella de Montgrí, Girona, Spain 1988 Centre Cultural Andre Malraux à Orsay, Orsay, France Centre Les Hauts de Belleville, Paris, France

Selected Group Exhibitions: 1994 6 pintors de Sabadell, Banc Sabadell, Sabadell, Spain BBC headquarters, London, England 1993 Museu d’Art Contemporani, Premi Ricard Camí, Tarragona, Spain 1986 Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

Selected Private and Public Collections Museum Can Framis /Fundació Vila Casas, Barcelona, Spain Museum Can Mario a Palafrugell, Girona, Spain Museum de Montserrat, Barcelona, Spain Museum of Contemporary Art, Tarragona, Spain Banc Sabadell Collection, Sabadell, Spain La Caixa Collection, Sabadell, Spain Testimoni Collection, Fundació la Caixa, Barcelona, Spain Corporació Sanitaria Parc Taulí Sabadell, Spain Parc de Salut Mar-Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain

Awards / Prizes / Commissions / Community 2007 Collaboration with Woody Allen on the film Vicky Cristina Barcelona 1992 Awarded design of Barcelona Olympic stamp and poster 1986 PRIZE : Muestra d’Arte Joven, Ministerio de Cultura, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid 1985 PRIZE : IV Menció en el XXIV Premi Internacional del Dibuix Joan Miró, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona

Index MIXED MEDIA ON CANVAS 18 Against different layers 22 APBS 7 Face in the middle 19 Female and minotaur- diptych 8 Figure and chair 9 Guitar 6 Ingravity 15 On the birth of Venus 18 One seated figure, one crossing 2018 17 Pause 20 Red figure in between 12 She reads 4 Tallest figure in between 22 The other hand 7 Two faces in the middle 11 Two figures MIXED MEDIA ON PAPER 16 Black and white 21 Female figure 5 Figure behind red mirror 13 Figure with wavy hair 10 Holding head one line 10 Numbers in white 21 One figure at the window 14 Red figure on dark background 23 Woman: behind the table 24 Woman: dance 14 Woman: digits 14 Woman: hands-head 24 Woman: look-behind 25 Woman: man 14 Woman: moon 25 Woman: observe 23 Woman: red 25 Woman: stay 24 Woman: thought

WINTER 2018 PROJECT MANAGER:

Ken Amorino PHOTOGRAPHERS:

Dani Rovira Soler and Ariadna Puig GRAPHICS TECHNICIAN:

Scott Saraceno CATALOG DESIGN:

Susan Tsuchiya Front cover: Two figures, 2018, mixed media on canvas Back cover: Tallest figure in between, 2018, mixed media on canvas

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