Manolo Millares. Personaje caído I

The Sabatini Building (Space 1) of the Museo Reina Sofía is hosting, from 9 September to 16 February 2027, an exhibition dedicated to one of the leading representatives of informalism and a fundamental figure in Spanish painting of the second half of the 20th century. This exhibition coincides with the centenary celebrations of the birth of Manolo Millares (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1926 - Madrid, 1972).

The exhibition focuses on the work Personaje caído I, which was created just two years before Millares's premature death at the age of 46, when he was achieving great international success. This canvas folds into a wrinkled volume, like the stitches of a bandaged wound or the suspended body of a dishevelled homunculus wrapped in its shroud. The fabric is an anguished protest with an air of crucifixion, a disjointed painting with the tightness of a shroud set against a serene red horizon with the tone of dried blood.

At this final stage of his career, upon the volumetric, sack-like casing of Alberto Burri's paintings, a graphic element can be sensed that Juan Manuel Bonet has compared to those applied by Antoni Tàpies or Cy Twombly: an enigmatic writing that reaffirms the illegibility of the canvas's very matter. From all this violence, white emerges as mourning, but also as hope. As in his best works, the vestige is finitude, but also the hopeful possibility of a future renewal. Millares wrote: "I believe my art is a slap in the face to death in order to justify life".

Currently, the Museo Reina Sofía holds around thirty pieces by Millares in its collection, including graphic art, drawings and paintings. Among them, eleven works donated by the Millares family stand out. Pieza Única is a room dedicated to the temporary exhibition of a single work from the Museo Reina Sofía Collections, offering special attention outside the framework of the permanent collection's narratives.