Conversation Piece
by Juan Muñoz
Material
Polyester resin
Datierung
1993
About the artwork
This sculpture consists of three figures with bulbous bodies (reminiscent of punching bags). They are huddled together having a conversation and they seem almost violent in their discussion.
About the artist
The Spanish sculptor, graphic designer and painter Juan Muñoz belonged to the most important representatives of a new, figurative sculpture, which emerged during the 1980s. After finishing his studies at the Central School of Art and Design in London, the Croydon School of Art and finally, at the Pratt Graphic Centre in New York, Muñoz returned to Madrid and worked as a curator. Additionally he finished his first own works, which were displayed at a solo exhibition in 1984.
His oeuvre focuses on the human figure, as an individual and in a group, and spatial relations – themes which he addressed in big sculptural installations as well as in delicate graphical works. Frequently, his drawings depict empty interiors or touch the genre of caricature.
Muñoz’ work is characterised by a fundamentally realistic approach and a tendency to reduced colouring or monochromacity respectively, with white and grey being the predominant colours. With its subtle and ambivalent tension between reality and unreality and its sensitive realism, Muñoz’ oeuvre broke new ground during an era dominated by neo-expressive tendencies and provocations.