Modest Cuixart I Tàpies Surrealist Female Portrait With Floral And Lunar Imagery, Spanish Modern Art 1978

Surrealist Female Portrait with Floral and Lunar Imagery, Spanish Modern Art

Artist: Modest Cuixart i Tàpies (Barcelona, 1925–Palamós, 2007)
Title: Flor d’Aigua
Date: 1978
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 100 × 81 cm / 39.4 × 31.9 in
Framing: Unframed
Signature: Signed and dated lower left
Inscription: Titled, dated and inscribed by the artist on the reverse
Origin: Spain
Style: Surrealism, Spanish Modernism, Figurative Expressionism
Period: 1970s

Description

An exceptional large-scale surrealist composition painted in 1978 by Modest Cuixart, one of the leading figures of Spanish postwar modernism and a founding member of the influential Catalan avant-garde group Dau al Set.

Titled Flor d’Aigua, or “Water Flower,” the work presents a mysterious female profile enclosed within a monumental anthropomorphic form that appears simultaneously as a rock, a mask, a body and an imaginary landscape. Above the figure, a circular yellow disc evokes the moon, the sun or a symbolic eye, while a vivid pink flower emerges from the surrounding darkness.

Cuixart constructs the image through layered areas of deep blue, turquoise, grey, green and golden ochre. The female face, rendered with an almost classical delicacy, contrasts with the freer, more expressive brushwork of the surrounding structure. This dialogue between beauty and unease, figuration and abstraction, is characteristic of the artist’s mature work during the 1970s.

The sea-like horizontal background and Mediterranean palette give the composition a dreamlike sense of distance. At the same time, the enclosed female figure introduces themes of memory, transformation, desire and the unconscious. The result is a visually powerful and psychologically charged painting with a distinctly poetic atmosphere.

Its substantial dimensions make it particularly suitable as a statement artwork for a contemporary interior, modernist residence, private collection, hotel, office or sophisticated hospitality project.

Artist Biography

Modest Cuixart i Tàpies was born in Barcelona in 1925 and became one of the most important Spanish and Catalan artists of the second half of the 20th century.

In 1948, Cuixart co-founded Dau al Set alongside Antoni Tàpies, Joan Ponç, Joan-Josep Tharrats, Arnau Puig and Joan Brossa. The group played a decisive role in reconnecting Spanish art with international surrealism, Dadaism and experimental modernism during the culturally isolated postwar period.

His early work was dominated by magical and surreal imagery, populated by signs, nocturnal figures and imaginary creatures. During the 1950s, his art evolved toward a highly experimental form of informalism, incorporating dense surfaces, collage, metallic elements, scraping and unconventional materials.

Cuixart achieved major international recognition in 1959 when he received the Grand Prize for Painting at the São Paulo Biennial. His work was also presented in important international exhibitions and institutions, establishing him as one of the leading representatives of Spanish avant-garde art.

From the 1960s onward, he gradually returned to the human figure, developing a highly personal language combining surrealism, expressionism, symbolism and erotic or psychological imagery. Female faces, fragmented bodies, flowers, masks and organic forms became recurring elements within his compositions.

During the 1970s and 1980s, his paintings became increasingly figurative, theatrical and dreamlike. Flor d’Aigua belongs precisely to this mature period, when Cuixart combined the human figure with imaginary landscapes and symbolic natural elements.

Pictorial Inspiration

The dream imagery and psychological tension of this composition connect Cuixart with the surrealist universe of Salvador Dalí and René Magritte, while its monumental, distorted anatomy recalls certain figures by Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon. The enclosed female profile also evokes the poetic classicism of Giorgio de Chirico and the mysterious feminine imagery of Paul Delvaux, transformed through Cuixart’s distinctly Mediterranean palette and expressive handling of paint.

Condition

Good vintage condition consistent with age. The painting presents visible surface texture, light rubbing, minor abrasions and areas of natural wear associated with the artist’s technique and the passage of time. Please examine the detailed photographs carefully, as they form an integral part of the condition description. The work is sold unframed.

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European art with a Mediterranean soul.