Galerie Jacques De Vos

Timeline

1891

Born in La Plata.

1963

Died in Buenos Aires.

Pablo Manès studied at the school of fine arts in Buenos Aires. He was awarded a bursary to study in Europe and after visiting Italy settled in Paris in 1914. There he studied under Bourdelle, and under the name Curatella-Manès, exhibited a Bronze at the Salon of the national fine arts society. He became close friends with Juan Gris. In 1924 he exhibited Guitarist at the Salon des Indépendants. In 1925 he took part in the Exposition Universelle des Arts Décoratifs, where he received a medal. Having executed a Bust of M. Alvéa, President of the Republic of Argentina, in 1926 he was appointed secretary to the Argentinian Embassy in Paris and continued in this post until 1948 while also pursuing his career as a sculptor. After World War II he took part in some important international exhibitions including, in 1952 the Venice Biennale and in 1953 the São Paulo Biennale. In 1947 he was awarded first prize for sculpture at the Buenos Aires national exhibition.

Manès’s Guitarist of 1924 and Nymph Leaning on her Elbows of the same period, reveal a strict Cubist approach, no doubt under the influence of his friend Juan Gris, however this became more relaxed around 1925, for example with his piece The Acrobats. His sculpture developed in parallel with the work of Lipchitz and later, as in the case of Lipchitz himself, volume exploded freely into space in the form of lianas and other tropical vegetation with The Saint of 1932 and the Fall of Icarus of 1933. This freedom of expression found by liberating volume into space brought the artist to the boundaries of abstraction although he continued to maintain contact with the pretext of reality in works such as Rugby and The Dance.

Bio info courtesy of Feingarten Galleries.