Manel Pujol Baladas — Fish and Hand (1990) — Material collage on paper — Certified work

Created in 1990, Fish and Hand is an intense mixed-media work on paper by Manel Pujol Baladas (Vic, 1947), fully representative of the material experimentation developed by the artist at the turn of the decade.

On a surface of 56 × 75 cm, a large fish occupies practically the entire composition. Its anatomy remains recognizable, yet it has been constructed and fragmented through paint, drawing, and numerous cutouts of printed paper, transforming the motif into a structure of extraordinary graphic force.

Blacks, whites, grays, and earth tones dominate the work. Against this deliberately restricted palette, the collage introduces small variations of beige and the typography of the printed fragments, while thick dark lines organize the figure and accentuate its monumentality.

The fish as a monumental form

Pujol Baladas enlarges the fish until it practically coincides with the limits of the work itself.

Head, eye, body, and tail are subjected to strong simplification. The large circular eye immediately focuses attention, while the body is built through an accumulation of papers, stains, and strokes that roughly follow the animal's anatomy without describing it in a naturalistic way.

The black line plays a fundamental role: it traverses the composition, delineates certain volumes, and disappears in others, creating a continuous oscillation between drawing and matter.

The fish thus ceases to be merely the subject of a still life to become a true pictorial architecture.

The hand: presence and gesture

In the upper left area appears the form that gives meaning to the second part of the title: a highly stylized hand, rendered through large dark contours.

Its presence introduces a human dimension into a composition dominated by the animal. Compared to the compact and horizontal weight of the fish, the hand possesses a more open and gestural character.

Pujol Baladas does not develop a conventional narrative scene. The relationship between both forms remains deliberately open: fish and hand confront each other within the same space without the need to explain a specific action.

This ambiguity broadens the reading of the work and distances it even further from a traditional still life.

Collage and matter

A good part of the fish's body is formed by fragments of press and printed paper, cut and superimposed in different directions.

The detail photographs show with particular clarity how words appear, disappear, and re-emerge between layers of black, white, and gray paint. Some papers remain practically intact; others have been almost completely covered or turned into small abstract units.

Pujol Baladas does not use collage as ornamentation. The paper literally forms the body of the fish and participates in its construction.

The paint applied over these cutouts, the folds, the small differences in level, and the overlapping edges give the surface a physical presence that is especially noticeable when the work is observed up close.

Between figure and abstraction

One of the most interesting aspects of Fish and Hand is the ease with which its interpretation changes depending on the distance.

From afar, a huge, perfectly recognizable fish appears. Upon approaching, its body decomposes into letters, newspaper fragments, pigment stains, thick lines, and small accumulations of matter.

The figure never disappears completely, but it does not totally dominate the painting either.

This constant tension between recognizable image and autonomy of the surface constitutes one of the foundations of the language developed by Pujol Baladas during these years.

The support as part of the work

The reverse also retains a previous graphic intervention, with large dark fields, remnants of color, and registration marks visible in the margins.

This detail allows for a particularly good appreciation of the experimental character of the support used by Pujol Baladas. The sheet does not function as a neutral surface: it possesses its own material history that is incorporated into the piece.

The use of previously printed or intervened papers, along with the press collage applied on the obverse, reinforces the sensation of a work constructed through accumulation, reuse, and transformation of materials.

1990: a moment of transformation

The date of 1990 places the work in an especially interesting period of Manel Pujol Baladas's trajectory.

During these years, his production is in the full process of consolidating a personal synthesis between figuration, collage, gesture, and material informalism. The fish—a recurring motif in different works from this period—adapts especially well to this language, as it allows for the preservation of a clear figurative structure while the interior of the form becomes a true field of experimentation.

Fish and Hand constitutes an especially clear example of that transformation.

Certificate and documentation

The work has an original certificate signed by Manel Pujol Baladas, identified as M.P.B. No. 0153.

The document expressly certifies the title Fish and Hand, its execution in 1990, the mixed media, and its dimensions of 56 × 75 cm.

Likewise, it includes a reference value of 300,000 Mexican pesos, with mention of the SAT —Tax Administration Service of Mexico—.

The artist's studio has confirmed that the figures recorded in these certificates correspond to the prices in Mexican pesos established for the master's works, thus providing a direct reference from the artist himself, distinct from secondary market quotes.

Technical sheet

Author: Manel Pujol Baladas
Title: Fish and Hand
Year: 1990
Technique: Mixed media and collage on paper
Dimensions: 56 × 75 cm
Signature: Signed “M. Pujol Baladas” in the lower right corner
Subject: Fish and human figure / contemporary figuration
Style: Expressive figuration and material informalism
Reverse: Previously intervened graphic surface, with visible registration marks
Certification: Original certificate signed by Manel Pujol Baladas
Certificate No.: M.P.B. 0153
Documented reference value: 300,000 MXN
Provenance: Private collection; belonging to the set of works certified directly by the artist
Condition: Good general condition, preserving the irregularities and reliefs characteristic of mixed media and collage.

Workshop Note

One of the most direct and forceful images among the works on paper in this set.

The enormous fish dominates almost completely the composition, but upon approaching it, its body ceases to be a compact form and begins to fragment into printed news, brushstrokes, stains, and small strata of paper. The large circular eye and deep blacks provide the work with an immediate visual intensity.

The presence of the hand also adds a human element that breaks with the conventional reading of the still life and leaves the relationship between both figures open.

Its 1990 date, the powerful treatment of the collage, and the individual certificate signed by Pujol Baladas make Fish and Hand a piece especially characteristic of the stage in which the artist takes figuration to the limit of material abstraction.