Manel Pujol Baladas — Red Peppers (1993) — Art Miami — Large certified textural still life

Signed and dated 1993, Red Peppers is a large-format mixed media work by Manel Pujol Baladas, belonging to the collection associated with Art Miami and representative of his material language from the early nineties.

On a board measuring 75 × 105 cm, the artist organizes the composition around a large central plate featuring several red peppers, surrounded by vessels, a glass, and other still-life elements.

The work combines gestural painting, collage, thick black outlines, and broad areas of color. The intense reds of the peppers immediately draw the eye and contrast with the blacks, bluish grays, earth tones, and whites that structure the rest of the surface.

The still life remains perfectly recognizable, but Pujol Baladas transforms it into a much freer construction, where objects are fragmented and integrated into the pictorial matter.

Peppers as a chromatic center

The large central plate constitutes the core of the composition.

Inside it, the peppers appear reduced to large masses of red, black, and green, without any meticulous descriptive intent. Their outlines blend with the brushstrokes and the collage fragments that traverse the surface.

The red functions as the work’s true center of gravity.

Compared to the more muted palette of the surroundings, it provides an immediate chromatic focus and allows the motif to be recognized even from a considerable distance.

Pujol Baladas thus turns an everyday food item into a pictorial form of enormous presence.

The plate as structure

The composition is organized by a large oval shape that occupies practically the entire center of the work.

The plate is not depicted according to conventional perspective. It opens frontally toward the viewer and becomes an almost autonomous structure, delineated by successive black lines and bands of color.

This deformation of perspective allows the food items to be exposed directly on the pictorial plane.

Rather than representing a real table, Pujol Baladas uses the still life as a pretext for organizing forms, rhythms, lines, and chromatic masses.

The result oscillates continuously between representation and abstraction.

Pitcher, glass, and compositional balance

On both sides of the plate, several vessels appear that help to stabilize the scene.

On the far left, a large dark vertical shape introduces a strong graphic presence; on the right, a tall-stemmed glass creates a lighter and more transparent counterpoint.

These elements function as the lateral limits of the composition and reinforce the horizontality of the central plate.

The alternation between heavy forms and more delicate ones brings balance to a surface that is otherwise extremely dynamic.

Pujol Baladas thus preserves some of the structural principles of the traditional still life, although subjected to a much freer execution.

Painting, collage, and fragmentation

Collage once again plays an essential role.

Throughout the composition, fragments of press and printed paper appear, partially covered by paint and crossed by black lines.

Some still retain identifiable letters and words; others have been reduced to small surfaces of color and texture.

The cutouts are not arranged as independent elements. Pujol Baladas paints directly over them, extending the brushstrokes beyond their limits and fusing them with the board.

The image ends up being constructed through a succession of layers in which it is difficult to establish where the painting ends and the collage begins.

An especially dynamic surface

Detailed photographs show a very active execution.

Long, curved brushstrokes run across the plate; paper diagonals cut through the food; thick blacks connect different sectors of the work, and small planes of blue, green, and white break up the warm dominant tones.

The surface retains scrapings, overlays, and varying densities of paint.

This complexity is especially well-appreciated when viewing the work up close, when the objects begin to lose their identity and the composition transforms into a succession of stains, papers, and gestures.

From a distance, however, the still life is clearly reconstructed.

From traditional still life to material language

Red Peppers starts from one of the fundamental genres of pictorial tradition: the still life.

However, Pujol Baladas virtually eliminates any desire for spatial illusion.

The objects are not conceived to faithfully reproduce their appearance. They function as structures upon which to experiment with pigment, line, collage, and texture.

The large plate, the peppers, the pitcher, and the glass still constitute the skeleton of the image, but the true interest lies in the way they are all subjected to a process of fragmentation.

The painting retains reality as a starting point, while at the same time taking it to the limits of abstraction.

1993: A stage of full maturity

The autograph inscription “93” places the work in the midst of the development of the language that characterizes Pujol Baladas during the first half of the nineties.

It is a moment when his compositions reach a special material density and collage is integrated more and more naturally into the painting.

The still lifes of these years allow the artist to experiment with recognizable forms without sacrificing enormous freedom of execution.

In Red Peppers, this synthesis is particularly clear: the theme is simple and immediately identifiable, while the surface possesses an almost abstract complexity.

Art Miami

The work belongs to the group of Pujol Baladas paintings associated with Art Miami.

This provenance provides an especially relevant exhibition context and allows the piece to be placed within the artist’s stage of international projection during the nineties.

Its combination of large format, exhibition provenance, autograph date, and direct certification from the artist provides the piece with particularly complete documentation.

Certificate and documentation

The work has an original certificate signed by Manel Pujol Baladas, identified as M.P.B. no. 0157.

The document lists the official title Red Peppers, the mixed media technique, the dimensions of 75 × 105 cm, and a reference value of 700,000 Mexican pesos.

There is a discrepancy regarding the date: the certificate records 1992, while the work itself features the autograph inscription “93” next to the signature.

For this reason, this cataloging uses 1993 as the primary date, as it is the dating visible directly on the piece, while also noting the year 1992 reflected in the subsequent certificate.

Pujol Baladas's studio has also confirmed that the amounts recorded in these certificates correspond to the prices in Mexican pesos established for the master's works.

Technical sheet

Author: Manel Pujol Baladas
Title: Red Peppers
Year: 1993, according to the autograph date visible on the work
Documentary note: Certificate M.P.B. 0157 records 1992
Technique: Mixed media and collage on board
Dimensions: 75 × 105 cm
Signature: Signed “M. Pujol Baladas” and dated “93” in the lower right corner
Exhibition provenance: Art Miami
Theme: Still life / contemporary nature morte
Main motif: Red peppers, plate, vessels, and glass
Style: Expressive figuration and material informalism
Certification: Original certificate signed by Manel Pujol Baladas
Certificate No.: M.P.B. 0157
Documented reference value: 700,000 MXN
Subsequent provenance: Private collection; belonging to the set of works certified directly by the artist
Condition: Good general condition, preserving the irregularities and reliefs typical of the mixed media and collage technique.

Workshop Note

A still life especially attractive for the clarity of its composition and the intensity of its reds.

The large central plate allows the motif to be immediately recognized, while the peppers provide a powerful chromatic focus within a surface dominated by blacks, earth tones, and bluish grays. On both sides, the vessels and the glass balance a composition that, despite its apparent spontaneity, is carefully structured.

Up close, a different work appears: press clippings, diagonals, impastos, paper edges, and overlapping brushstrokes fragment the food until they become practically abstract forms.

Its 75 × 105 cm format, the autograph signature and date of 1993, the provenance from Art Miami, and the individual certificate signed by Manel Pujol Baladas make Red Peppers a piece especially representative of his large material still lifes from the early nineties.