Xavier Mascaró

The exhibition showcases iron sculptures created by Xavier Mascaró between 1995 and 2003. The artist was born in Paris in 1965 and studied art at the University of Barcelona.

Mascaró´s work is part of a tradition in Spanish art history that stretches from the realistic images of Gregorio Fernández to the Baroque paintings of Valdés Leal. His idiom is representational but concentrates on the invisible, presenting subjects inspired by bullfighting (saddles, bridles, horses, ropes) or daily life (toys, crucifixes, reliquaries etc.). They always relate to man or, as Maurice Blanchot put it, man´s transitoriness, his absence. And this absence reflects a tragic view of life.

Cast iron, not wrought iron, is Mascaró´s most important material and unites his oeuvre. Each work has a certain totem-character, perhaps caused by the funeral they have to suffer through to be cast, as though they were drawing strength from the earth. Helmets, body armour, braces, shirts, and suits of armour worn by the rider sporting his lance, or by his horse, the clothes and trousers worn by a bull-fighter etc. become icons. On the other hand there is a - occasionally hybrid - morphology: bee hives, animals, wethers that have also been turned into totems.

There are three cycles in Mascaró´s work: firstly, works characterised by thick supports, secondly, those with lighter supports or poles, and, thirdly, the gravitations of Chillida. In addition, there are installations in bull-fighting arenas, in summer cinemas, and in tents.

Mascaró´s oeuvre is characterised by an encounter between material, form, and the psychology of the artist.

The artist spent the years between 1996 and 1998 in New York before moving to Madrid in 1998.

Biography:

1965
born in Paris

1978
first graphic works

1983
begins to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelona

1988
graduates with a degree in painting and sculpture

1989
plaster and bronze sculptures

1994
begins to work in iron

1995
first exhibition of sculptures

1996
moves to New York

1999
returns to Spain, undertakes studies in Madrid

2000
exhibition at Marlborough Gallery in Madrid

2001
installation of a sculpture at Jerez

2002
installation of sculptures at Pinto and Ceuta

2003
exhibition at Marlborough Gallery in Madrid

2004
returns again to graphic works