Salvador Corratgé

b. Havana, Cuba, 1928 – d. Miami, Florida, United States, 2014

Untitled

1962

Casein on masonite

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Salvador Corratgé interrupted his study of art and architecture to immerse himself exclusively in painting. In 1953 he exhibited with members of Los Once (The Eleven), a group focused on abstract expressionism and tachisme which prioritized spontaneous gestures of the artists’ brushstrokes. Later he found his niche with 10 Pintores Concretos (10 Concrete Painters), after which he was dedicated to geometric abstraction.

 

This painting synthesizes common attributes in Corratgé's pictorial work: an austere palette using only a few complementary pigments; hard-edge masses of color uniformly occupying planes, concavities, and convexities; and elastic, organic shapes juxtaposed, resting or undulating, counterpointing and gently penetrating one another or confronting and repelling each other without blending. 

 

A sensual, extremely gratifying dynamic of contrast, tension and flow is generated from Corratgé’s seemingly unsophisticated compositions.

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*This piece was included in the exhibition section titled "The Language of Forms and The Forms of Language."