Rafael Canogar

RAFAEL CANOGAR GÓMEZ (Toledo, 1935).
Untitled. 1991.
Silkscreen on 270 grams Vélin d'Arches paper, copy 115/250.
Signed, dated and numbered in pencil.
Measurements: 90 x 63 cm.
A disciple of Daniel Vázquez Díaz, Canogar was a co-founder of the group "El Paso", and during the fifties he developed a fully informalist work, which drifted during the sixties into an increasingly complex narrative figuration. During his mature period, from 1975 onwards, Canogar invented a new iconography, his own and personal, which he expressed through the mask, the head, the face, as a representation of man who loses his individuality and becomes a plastic sign, as can be seen in the work we are now presenting. His awards include the National Prize for Plastic Arts (1982), he is a member of the San Fernando Academy, and is represented in the most important modern art collections around the world, such as the Reina Sofía Museum, the MOMA in New York, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburg, the Rufino Tamayo Museum in Mexico and the Chicago Art Institute, among many others.
The Olympic Suite is composed of 50 lithographs and silkscreen prints chosen to represent various contemporary artistic trends. It was published to commemorate the first centenary of modern Olympism. The chosen artists are defined by diverse movements and pictorial trends.