Madrid,
They belonged practically to the same generation (nine years separate them) and were born in cities not too far away, on the shores of the Mediterranean: Banyuls-sur-mer, in Occitania near the Spanish border, and Barcelona. Furthermore, in their twenties, both Aristide Maillol and Manolo Hugué (often called just Manolo) ended up in Paris, and their time there would be fundamental for both: Maillol began to develop his interest in sculpture, exhibited in the Ambroise Vollard gallery and triumphed at the Salon d’Automne, a prelude to many successes and subsequent commissions, while Hugué, in France, worked both in that field of sculpture and in that of jewelry and met Rodin in his most fruitful period.
In the big city they established contact, but their friendship would be consolidated some time later, when during World War I they met in the Eastern Pyrenees. Maillol spent those years in his city and Manolo in Céret, about forty kilometers away, and we know that they visited each other regularly and probably maintained relevant artistic exchanges when shaping their respective productions: sober and attached to the essential.
In times of isms and ruptures, both the French and the Spanish chose not to detach themselves from the human figure: the first trying to synthesize classicist harmony, monumentality and pure and forceful forms that, to a certain extent, preceded those of the art of the thirty and some developments of Henry Moore; the second, close to Catalan Noucentisme, combining classic and popular features, rough finishes and firm volumetry, and of course addressing Mediterranean themes: maternities, peasants, bullfighters. He did not want to stick to a single material (I use bronze, stone and wood) and knew how to combine simplicity and spiritual longing.
Fifteen works by each of them can be seen today in the Leandro Navarro gallery, in the exhibition “Maillol-Manolo. Pure sculpture”, which emphasizes some of their points in common: their look at archaic and classical Greece, the evident ties of their creations with Mediterranean culture and their rigor in modeling.
This is one of the most significant exhibitions of this beginning of 2026 in Madrid: in addition to the relevance of its pieces, because this is the first presentation that a Spanish gallery offers to Maillol (and it is only the second that Leandro Navarro dedicates to Hugué; the previous one was offered a quarter of a century ago). Furthermore, the project is the result of the collaboration of this space with two other rooms, where it will travel in the coming months: Artur Ramon Art, in Barcelona (it will be seen there from March to May) and Dina Vierny, in Paris (from September to October).
From Maillol we can contemplate Bust of Venus à la frange (1920-1928), a collection of small-format works, among which two studies for his famous and monumental work stand out. Mediterranean and other larger sculptures, such as Pomone à la tunique (around 1920) and Young girl assise – Korda – 1st stage (1936).
We must highlight Hugué’s bronze pieces. The Bacchante (1934) -of which another copy is preserved in the Museum of Modern Art of Barcelona- and Femme assise (1930-1931), as well as a set of terracottas.
“Maillol-Manolo. Pure sculpture”
LEANDRO NAVARRO GALLERY
C/ Amor de Dios, 1
Madrid
From January 8 to February 20, 2026
