"There is [...] something threatening to the individual, to his freedom, to his integrity, in the notion of a crowd. It gives rise to the idea of an autonomous, irresistible force, beyond the control of those involved"
– Jacques Julliard, Foule, public, opinion

Born in Valencia in 1930 and died in Madrid in 2020, Juan Genovés was a Spanish painter and graphic designer. A committed artist, he liked to question the role of the artist and his place in society. As expressionist as he was provocative and anti-Franco, Juan Genovés questioned the mechanisms of dictatorship by contrasting the individual with the crowd in his works. His apparently simple canvases in fact conceal a great underlying complexity. Abstract up close, they take on their full meaning when viewed from a greater distance.

The human figures, indefinite and swarming, play a secondary role despite their omnipresence in the composition. They fade into the background to make way for the movement they produce and the context in which they evolve. Visually rich, his works can be read on several levels. The resulting images are intended to challenge those created by the mass media, and to denounce the human manipulation that results from their use. Abhorring authoritarian policies, Genovés sees the crowd as a social catalyst, both victim and executioner, oppressor and oppressed.

However, beyond the sense of oppression they provoke, Juan Genovés' canvases are undeniably poetic. Colourful and lively, they are teeming with detail. To visually deepen the gap between the one and the many, the individual is represented in collage form, while the crowds are painted more graphically. The artist's play on textures and on the thickness of the different layers of paint produces a whole spectrum of objects, buildings and characters, all interacting with each other, like choreographies improvised by a form of collective unconsciousness.

"The whole question is already there: should we consider the crowd as a living being, endowed with autonomous qualities, irreducible to the individuals who make it up? Is there more to a crowd than the sum of its parts?" When you get up close, each figure is unique in its pose, attitude and colours, yet at the same time an integral part of the group. Millimetre-scale, Genovés' canvases take on a meditative quality, and the imaginary movements of these static crowds have the bewitching, psychedelic allure of a kaleidoscope.

This 2006 canvas, Cuatro Caminos, depicts one of the crowd movements so characteristic of the artist's style. The figures, coming from four different directions, seem to find themselves in the centre of the canvas, as if drawn by an invisible force. The light is low and the shadows are stretched, reinforcing the feeling of strangeness that this mysterious procession provokes.

While it's impossible to know what brings these characters together in this place, it's ultimately the absence of them from certain parts of the canvas that will intrigue viewers the most. Seemingly avoiding the shadows, gathering in a perfect circle around an invisible object, it is ultimately the unexplained potential of this crowd that fascinates most.

To be auctioned on 14 September, this hypnotic, end-of-the-world canvas, dancing and changing, at once harmonious and oppressive, is sure to attract the interest of collectors.


Juan Genovés (1930 - 2020), Cuatro Caminos, 2006
Acrylic on canvas, signed and dated lower right
Provenance: Galeria Manel Mayoral, Barcelona, 2006 Private collection, Belgium
Estimate : 80 000 - 120 000 €