Manuel Duque

MANUEL DUQUE (Nerva, Huelva, 1919 - Sabadell, Barcelona, 1998).
Untitled, 1957.
Watercolor on paper.
Signed and dated in the lower corner.
Measurements: 69 x 103 cm; 73 x 108 cm (frame).

Self-taught painter. After the death of his mother, he had to leave school and, later, his hometown to start working. He did not devote himself to painting until a friend of his encouraged him to travel to Paris, where he was seduced by avant-garde creations and where he had the opportunity to make his first solo exhibition at the Breteau gallery. When he returned to Sabadall, he gathered the Gallot group, made up of artists who wanted to update the artistic environment of the city through protest actions. His pictorial career will continue individually in Paris, Sabadell and Madrid, and his work will be known throughout Europe. In 1999, friends and family set up the Manuel Duque Collection with the aim of preserving and disseminating his artistic legacy. The Museum of Art of Sabadell inaugurated in 2002 the exhibition Manuel Duque. The golden legend or the return to a pictorial literature. In November 2018, on the occasion of the twentieth birthday of his death, the Fundació Vila Casas organized the exhibition, Manuel Duque. De la luz en el mundo, dedicated to his work.