Manel Pujol Baladas — Violin (1990) — Art Miami — Sheet music collage on handmade paper

Created in 1990, Violín (Violin) is a singular work by Manel Pujol Baladas (Vic, 1947) in which painting, drawing, and collage are integrated around one of the most evocative motifs in his production: music.

On handmade paper measuring 56 × 76 cm, the artist constructs the monumental figure of a violin using broad masses of ochres, earth tones, blacks, and whites. The instrument occupies practically the entire surface and appears deliberately altered, fragmented, and reconstructed through thick outlines, glazes, scrapings, and areas of heavy impasto.

In the lower left corner, several fragments of musical score, authentically incorporated via collage, physically penetrate the composition. Music thus ceases to be merely the represented theme: it becomes a material part of the work itself.

The violin as a pictorial form

Pujol Baladas does not intend to describe the instrument with academic precision.

The silhouette of the violin widens, deforms, and adapts to the space until it becomes the very architecture of the composition. The curves of the soundboard provide the general rhythm of the image, while thick black strokes partially define its contours and traverse the different layers of color.

We still recognize the instrument clearly, but the painting continuously takes it toward another territory: the violin ceases to function only as an object and starts to become mass, line, rhythm, and surface.

This tension between figuration and abstraction is especially characteristic of Pujol Baladas’s work from the early 1990s.

Painting music

One of the most attractive aspects of the work is the dialogue between the represented violin and the real musical score adhered to the support.

The sheets appear partially covered by white paint and crossed by black lines and stains, but the notes, staves, and even some musical notations remain perfectly visible. In the details, one can also see texts printed in French, preserved as vestiges of the original document.

Pujol Baladas thus literally introduces music into painting.

The score does not function as a decorative element added as an afterthought. Its paper, edges, the areas hidden under the pigment, and its direct relationship with the represented instrument make it an integral part of the work’s construction.

The relationship between image and sound, violin and score, matter and rhythm gives the composition an unusual coherence, even within his material-based production.

A surface built in layers

The detailed photographs allow one to appreciate the technical complexity of the piece particularly well.

The surface preserves dragged brushstrokes, thick impasto, transparencies, scrapings, and fragments of paper that remain partially buried by layers of paint. There is no clean separation between drawing, collage, and pigment: all these elements overlap to form a single structure.

The reddish and earthy tones of the violin's body contrast with the blacks that articulate its silhouette and with the whitish areas surrounding the composition. Small appearances of yellow, blue, and gray break the warm dominant tone and enrich the surface when observed up close.

The handmade paper is also particularly appropriate for this language, as it adds to the whole a texture and materiality different from the works the artist has created on canvas.

1990: The beginning of a fundamental stage

The date 1990 places Violín at the beginning of one of the most interesting periods in Pujol Baladas’s career.

It is the moment when his language matures toward an increasingly personal synthesis of figuration, collage, gesture, and material informalism. It was precisely in 1990 that his career also recorded international presence and his participation in BIAF, Fira d'Art de Barcelona, in addition to his relationship with the Hispanic Art Museum in San Francisco. Manel Pujol Baladas

Recognizable objects continue to have an important presence, but they cease to be the final goal of the painting. Musical instruments, still lifes, and figures progressively become structures from which to investigate matter and pictorial space.

Violín constitutes a particularly clear example of this transformation.

Art Miami

The work belongs to the set of Pujol Baladas pieces coming from Art Miami, within the significant international projection achieved by the artist during the first half of the 1990s.

Pujol Baladas participated in ART MIAMI 1994 through Corinne Timsit International Galleries Inc., a gallery with a presence in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Paris, in a period immediately preceding his successive participations in ARCO. Manel Pujol Baladas

This provenance adds an especially significant exhibition context to the piece and allows it to be placed within a group linked to one of the most relevant international episodes of his career.

Certificate and documentation

The work is accompanied by an original certificate signed by Manel Pujol Baladas, identified as M.P.B. No. 0150.

The document expressly certifies the title Violín, its execution in 1990, the mixed media on handmade paper, and its dimensions of 56 × 76 cm.

Likewise, it records a value of 300,000 Mexican pesos determined in relation to the SAT (Tax Administration Service of Mexico). Pujol Baladas’s own studio has confirmed that the amounts appearing in these certificates correspond to the prices in Mexican pesos established for the master’s works.

The artist’s direct certification, together with the Art Miami provenance, provides the piece with particularly complete documentation.

Technical sheet

Author: Manel Pujol Baladas
Title: Violín
Year: 1990
Technique: Mixed media and musical score collage on handmade paper
Dimensions: 56 × 76 cm
Signature: Signed in the upper left corner
Exhibition provenance: Art Miami
Genre: Musical composition / contemporary figuration
Style: Expressive figuration and material informalism
Certification: Original certificate signed by Manel Pujol Baladas
Certificate No.: M.P.B. 0150
Documented reference value: 300,000 MXN
Subsequent provenance: Private collection; belonging to the set of works certified directly by the artist
Conservation status: Good general condition, with surface irregularities typical of the mixed media technique and its material execution.

Studio Note

One of the most singular pieces in the collection due to the perfect correspondence between motif and matter.

Pujol Baladas does not limit himself here to representing a violin: he physically introduces music into the painting by means of original score fragments, partially hidden under layers of pigment. The instrument and what might sound through it are reunited on the same surface.

Contemplation from up close is especially attractive, where one can appreciate the musical notes, the torn paper, the impasto, and the successive strata of paint; as we step back, everything reintegrates into the monumental silhouette of the violin.

Its 1990 date, the technique on handmade paper, the Art Miami provenance, and the individual certificate signed by Manel Pujol Baladas make Violín a particularly personal and very well-documented work from this period.

The relationship between music, painting and collage during this period is explored through other works in our article on Manel Pujol Baladas.