‘Art reflects the living light of truth in the darkness of human life’
(Pic Adrian, Réflexions sur l’univers sonore, Paris, 1955)

Pic Adrian. Paintings from the 1960s surveys the entire body of pictorial work produced by the artist during this decade and explores the context behind the theory that he termed ‘Essentialism’. This exhibition is the first to focus on this fundamental aspect of his work, one that proved highly important during his pursuit of his artistic career. It was in these works that the artist expressed his obsession with simplicity and succinctness, while seeking to achieve a balance – unusual at that time in the Iberian Peninsula – between the asceticism of geometry and the freedom of Art informel.

His paintings from this period have often been described by critics and historians of the day, such as Pierre Restany, Gillo Dorfles, Carlos Areán, Juan Cortés and Àngel Marsà, as silent and austere works in which the artist always incorporates elements that tauten the composition in order to create a sensitive painting with links to the worlds of music and science. This equilibrium between dualities to achieve a much sought-after timeless universality is what he was most interested in and what he always strove to attain: ‘Essentialism, as a movement, has a condition of totality’, he remarked.