José Manuel Broto, born in 1949 in Saragossa, Spain, is considered today one of the foremost representatives of the Spanish contemporary art scene. His early constructivism (1968) was quickly replaced by abstraction (1972), to which he remains faithful to this day.
The abstract minimalism of his early ’80s work evolved, towards the end of the decade, into abstract expressionism, with the incorporation into his paintings of stimuli taken from landscapes, and is reminiscent of nature in its most primitive manifestation. His relocation from Barcelona to Paris in 1985, where he lives and works to this day, coincides with the substitution of his romantic subjects by more austere and abstract forms.

From the late ’90s onwards, new subjects, such as space-like figures and transparent atmospheric shapes, have been added to Broto’s usual forms of dream-like figures, geometric shapes, labyrinths and organic forms. The intense spiritual and symbolic charge of the works seems to pave the way for rhythm and ‘syntax’. The division of colour on the surface often gives way to a single colour field, while the shapes acquire an enigmatic quality. At his first solo exhibition at the Xippas Gallery in Athens, Broto will be presenting his most recent works, made in 2007.