José Manuel Broto

He was born in Zaragoza and studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in his native city. In 1972 he settled in Barcelona. A member of the Trama group, made up of Javier Rubio, Xavier Grau and Gonzalo Tena, they presented their work in 1976 at the Maeght gallery in Barcelona, with the support of Antoni Tàpies. They published a magazine, also called Trama, of which only two issues appeared (1976-1977)

His work is part of the movement called neoabstraction of the 1970s and was influenced in its genesis by the aesthetic and plastic principles of the French group Supports-Surfaces. His production evolved from the 1970s, a period in which he produced informal works with a minimalist tone based on elementary geometric structures with flat fields of monochromatic color, towards a gestural or lyrical abstraction that combines abstract forms with formal references to geometric objects,

organic forms or signs taken from other languages such as mathematics, music or writing, especially from 1985 onwards.

Informalism is linked to the revaluation of color, for expressive and emotional purposes, and of gesture, being the result of poetic and metaphysical reflection. In his works, counterpoints and tensions between chromatic fields and forms are frequent. He receives influences from abstract expressionism, from Cézanne and cubism. From a technical point of view, in his latest works he uses acrylic and tars, creates glazes through the superposition of fine layers of very liquid paint, and also occasionally resorts to dripping.

Text provided by the Mediterranean Foundation. Author: J. B. Peiró.