Manel Pujol Baladas — Tablecloth and Vase (1992) — Art Miami — Certified large-format textural still life

Created in 1992, Mantel y jarrón is a large-format work by Manel Pujol Baladas (Vic, 1947), belonging to the group of paintings presented at Art Miami during one of the periods of the artist’s greatest international visibility.

On a canvas measuring 100 × 81 cm, Pujol Baladas reinterprets still life through intensely physical painting, built from material, drawing, collage and successive layers of colour. The white tablecloth and large bluish vase organise the centre of the composition, accompanied by fruit, vessels and other barely suggested elements that appear and disappear within the dense surface.

The scene remains recognisable as a still life, but its interest no longer rests on faithfully representing objects. Pujol Baladas turns each element into form, texture and gesture, making the canvas itself a space for pictorial experimentation.

The tablecloth as the composition’s structure

The large, light-coloured tablecloth descends from the centre of the painting and forms the underlying architecture of the still life.

Its surface breaks through the darkness at the sides and immediately leads the eye towards the vase, rendered in intense blues, whites and thick black strokes. Pujol Baladas constructs the folds of the fabric through lines, patches of colour and fragments of material, moving beyond conventional depiction.

This large white area introduces depth and luminosity into a composition otherwise dominated by ochres, greens, blacks and earth tones.

A bunch of grapes in yellowish and greenish tones appears on the left, while various vessels and circular forms complete the scene. The objects seem to pile up and overlap, creating a sense of abundance and movement far removed from the traditional stillness of the genre.

Vase, colour and material

The vase is the painting’s main focal point of colour.

Its intense blue stands out against the earth tones and turns an everyday object into an almost autonomous presence. The black contour partially defines its shape, but the paint continually overflows those boundaries, allowing figure and background to merge.

This tension between the recognisable object and its progressive dissolution is fundamental to Pujol Baladas’s work during these years.

The surface also preserves numerous traces of execution: impasto, scraping, dragged paint, energetic lines and paper fragments incorporated as collage. Light falls differently on these irregularities, giving the painting a physical presence that varies with the viewing angle.

From traditional still life to material-based Art Informel

Although Mantel y jarrón retains elements of the still-life tradition—fruit, vessels, tableware and textiles—its construction belongs fully to the contemporary language developed by Pujol Baladas.

Classical perspective almost disappears. Table, tablecloth, vase and the remaining objects are compressed onto a shared surface and reconstructed through patches of colour, lines and accumulations of material.

The collage reinforces this transformation. Fragments of printed paper remain partly visible beneath the paint, bringing elements of reality directly onto the canvas and breaking down the separation between the represented image and the physical object.

Pujol Baladas thus preserves the memory of traditional still life while subjecting it to a deeply personal process of fragmentation and reconstruction.

A work from 1992

The painting is dated 1992, a particularly significant moment in the artist’s career.

During these early years of the 1990s, Pujol Baladas consolidates a language based on the coexistence of figuration, gestural expressionism, collage and material-based Art Informel. The objects remain readily recognisable, but increasingly serve as a starting point for exploring the painted surface and its materials.

Mantel y jarrón is a particularly clear example of this period: a substantial, technically complex work built around a recurring motif in his production, the still life.

Art Miami

The painting also has a particularly relevant exhibition history: it was part of the group presented at Art Miami.

This places it within the period of Pujol Baladas’s international expansion in the United States and provides a specific exhibition context for a work whose language and chronology are fully representative of that time.

Alongside its execution during the artist’s years of international expansion, the painting is directly linked to one of the most notable exhibitions of that stage in his career.

The Art Miami exhibition history, together with the large format and individual documentation, is one of the principal features distinguishing the work.

Certificate and documentation

Mantel y jarrón is accompanied by an original certificate signed by Manel Pujol Baladas, identified as M.P.B. no. 0125, in which the artist certifies its authorship, title, technique, dimensions and year of execution.

The document also records a reference value of 740,000 Mexican pesos, in the context of its connection with the SAT—Mexico’s Servicio de Administración Tributaria.

According to information provided directly by Pujol Baladas, the amounts recorded in these certificates correspond to the reference prices established for his works. As an indicative equivalent, the figure represents around €37,000, which should be distinguished from secondary-market prices.

The combination of an individual certificate, signature, date and Art Miami exhibition history provides particularly comprehensive documentation for the painting.

Work details

Artist: Manel Pujol Baladas
Title: Mantel y jarrón
Year: 1992
Technique: Mixed media and collage on canvas
Dimensions: 100 × 81 cm
Format: 40 F
Signature: Signed
Exhibition history: Art Miami
Genre: Contemporary still life
Style: Expressive figuration and material-based Art Informel
Certification: Original certificate signed by Manel Pujol Baladas
Certificate number: M.P.B. 0125
Documented reference value: 740,000 MXN
Subsequent provenance: Private collection; part of a group of 18 certified works by the artist
Condition: Excellent overall condition

The Workshop’s Note

A work of considerable presence and one of the most fully developed still lifes in this group by Manel Pujol Baladas from the early 1990s.

The contrast between the white tablecloth, the intense blue of the vase and the dark, earthy background gives the composition a distinctive richness of colour. Close up, material predominates—collage, impasto, scraping and strokes; viewed as a whole, the vase, grapes, vessels and classical structure of a still life reappear.

Its Art Miami exhibition history, substantial dimensions of 100 × 81 cm and individual certificate signed by the artist complete a particularly representative and well-documented work from this period of Pujol Baladas’s career.