Manolo Millares. Personaje caído I

Exhibition centred on the painting Personaje caído I, by Manolo Millares, presented in the Edificio Sabatini of the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. A display that concentrates attention on a single work within the Pieza Única room.

The display centres on Personaje caído I, a painting by Manolo Millares presented in the Edificio Sabatini of the Museo Reina Sofía. The canvas is folded in on itself, forming a crumpled volume that evokes a bandaged wound or a hanging figure wrapped in a shroud.

The surface conveys an anguished protest, with an air of crucifixion, and a red horizon that recalls dried blood. Because of its voluminous wrapping, the work is related to the sacks of Alberto Burri. Over this volume appears an enigmatic writing that renders the material of the canvas illegible; Juan Manuel Bonet has compared this device with those used by Antoni Tàpies and Cy Twombly. It is a piece made in the final stage of Millares's career.

In the work, white appears as mourning and also as hope: the vestige reads as finitude and, at the same time, as the possibility of renewal. The museum holds some thirty pieces by the artist, among graphic art, drawings and paintings, and eleven of them were donated by the Millares family. The Pieza Única room, dedicated to a single work from the collection, allows a concentrated visit focused on this painting.