Matthew Liu Fine Arts is pleased to present its second gallery exhibition by internationally acclaimed Spanish artist Eduardo Arranz-Bravo. For over 50 years Arranz-Bravo has been famous for creating abstract paintings with a focus on the universal emotions of individuals living in contemporary world—their pleasure, excitement, passion, fear, solitary moments and subconscious peculiarities. With vivid colors and simple forms, his works are distinguished by their emotional power, precision and purity.

 

Presenting Arranz-Bravo's newest body of work created between 2013 and 2017, the exhibition is primarily emphasized on his most recent works. The earliest painting in the show Zen (2013) depicts a human body lying against a cerulean blue background. Sinuous contours and organic shapes in black and white hovering between abstraction and poetic suggestions of torso, limbs and organs. The blurred blocks of various colors beneath the body contain units of human expressions, aiming toward the spiritual experience of Zen. The center pieces of this exhibition are Contrapunt [Counterpoint] series and Upon-up series, both are created in 2017. Composed around the axis in the center, these works suggest the basic emotions, feelings and processes in life. Counterpoint is a musical concept, referring to the vibrant and intense short notes that contrast with the rest of the music in the score. For Arranz-Bravo, art is a counterpoint for humanity, and it is through paintings he expresses thoughts, human impulses and mysteries. In Upon-ups, the artist applies multiple layers of paints to the canvas, leaving one colors rests on top of and blends in with another, and then adds spontaneous and playful lines and shapes. These somehow familiar and yet amorphous forms are essentially the artist’s introspection on paintings’ potential to distill human experience.

 

Painted on canvas and then mounted to a wooden board, the pictures of Nine Faces (2017) create the most vibrant expression of the artist's inner universe, representing the fundamental truth of humanity. Also on view are Everduring III (2015), Love in Canvas (2016) and Dale que Dale (2017). In his paintings, life becomes an explicable diagrammatic series of gestures and relationships, represented in the essence of things, figures and shapes as he perceives them, channeling the deeply held human instincts. All of these works are faithful demonstrations of the artist’s thoughts on here and now and hopes, imaginations and dreams for the future. As the title of the Perser (For to be, 2017) series suggests, this exhibition shows the new directions Arranz-Bravo is heading for.

 

Born in 1941 in Barcelona, Eduardo Arranz-Bravo graduated from San Jorge Superior School of Fine Arts. Since the 1980's, he has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions worldwide, including Matthew Liu Fine Arts, Shanghai, China, 2017 and 2014; Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York & San Francisco, USA, 2008-2016; Fundació Arranz-Bravo, Spain, 2006-2017; Museu de l’Hospitalet, Spain, 2005; Messum’s Fine Art, London, England, 2000; Museo Nacionál Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain, 1999; Grand Palais, Paris, France, 1991; Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1990; and Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1989.

 

Museum collections which hold works by the artist include Buhl Collection, New York, USA; Getty Collection, California, USA; Museu d’Art Contemporani, and Museo d’Art Modern, Barcelona, Spain; Museu d’Arte Moderna, Sã Paulo, Brazil; Museu de L’Hospitalet, L’Hospitalet, Spain; Museo Nacionál Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland; Ritz Carlton Pacific Place, Jakarta, Indonesia; Skidmore Art Museum, New York, USA, among many others.

 

For further information, please contact info@mlfinearts. com or +86 21 6315 1582.