Manolo

Manuel Hugué known as "Manolo", his full name Manuel Martínez i Hugué is a sculptor, painter, engraver and designer, born in Barcelona (Catalonia) on April 29, 1872 and died on November 17, 1945 in Caldes de Montbui (near Barcelona) . He is buried in the cemetery of this small town in which he had lived since 1929. Manolo Hugué began in 1884 to attend evening classes at La Llotja in Barcelona and, on Sundays, went to see the exhibitions. In 1890 he decided to be a sculptor. The Pitxot family welcomed him and gave him the opportunity to frequent the “Els Quatre Gats” café where he met many artists, notably Santiago Rusiñol, Carlos Casagemas, Ramon Casas, Miguel Utrillo and Picasso. In 1891 he worked at the Masriera foundry where he saw the great names of sculpture of the time pass. In 1910 Manolo Hugué left for Céret, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, with the intention of looking for a place to work. The contract he signs with Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler allows him to settle there. Without enthusiasm for the cubist aesthetic, he shares with Aristide Maillol, established in Banyuls, a taste for Mediterranean feminine forms. The War interrupting his relations with Kahnweiler, he faces new difficulties of subsistence and in 1917 must leave Céret to return after a dozen years of absence in Barcelona and then settle in Arenys de Munt. In 1919 he returned to Céret, found Picasso and his friends but also formed new relationships, Pablo Gargallo, Joseph Maragall, Togores, André Masson, Marc Chagall, Pierre Brune, Pinchus Krémègne. In 1921 he illustrated with eight woodcuts Heart of Oak; poems by Pierre Reverdy. In Céret in 1923 he made a tribute to Déodat de Séverac and to Arles-sur-Tech in 1924 a monument to the dead (L'ofrena). In Barcelona he took part in the International Exhibition of 1929. The disease affecting his hands making his work as a sculptor difficult, Manolo made many paintings. In 1932 he was appointed member of the Royal Catalan Academy of Fine Arts of Saint-Georges. In 1933 a book by Victor Castre appeared on his work. He participated in the Universal Exhibition of 1937 in Paris. In 1938 Manolo wrote a letter of recommendation for Wifredo Lam to Picasso, the two painters quickly becoming friends. Exhibitions of Manolo's works were organized in 1938 at the Petit Palais in Paris, in 1941 in Madrid and Barcelona, in 1943 in Sabadell. In 1984, the Louise Leiris gallery made a donation of seven works by Manolo to the Center Pompidou.