128 - MANUEL MARÍN (Cieza, Murcia, 1942 – Málaga, 2007).

MANUEL MARÍN (Cieza, Murcia, 1942 – Málaga, 2007). Untitled, c. 1980. Polychrome iron. One-of-a-kind piece. Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Ms. Monika Rabassa, the artist’s widow. Shows very slight signs of wear. Signed. Measurements: 43 x 90 x 35 cm. In the 1980s, a period of consolidation in Manuel Marín’s career, this mobile sculpture in polychrome metal demonstrates his aesthetic and conceptual maturity. The use of primary colors not only provides visual contrast but also organizes the structure of the work within a logic akin to Neoplasticism. The forms, suspended in a dynamic equilibrium, transform the space into a field of shifting tensions. Manuel Marín began his career in bullfighting at the age of ten and made his debut in a bullfight at sixteen. However, at the age of twenty, he decided to move to London, where he began working at an art gallery and discovered his calling for sculpture. There he met the British artist Henry Moore, who took him on as an assistant in the creation of his bronze sculptures. In 1964, he moved to New York, where he worked as an art restorer before founding his own gallery, The American Indian Art Gallery, which counted figures such as Warhol, Basquiat, De Kooning, and Keith Haring among its clients. Fascinated by kinetic sculptures, he began creating his own works in 1969 and held his first exhibition the following year at the Alan Brown Gallery in Scarsdale. Since then, his work has been exhibited in New York and in countries such as Canada, Italy, Mexico, China, Puerto Rico, Japan, and Spain. Today, he has public monuments in the United States and Spain, and his work is part of international collections, having been recognized by both critics and the public.