THE POWER OF PICTURES
David Messum

Those who insist that painting is dead - and that concept is infinitely more important than execution in today's clinical and cynical art world - shoulcí consider the power of pictures by Agustí Puig.
lf painting ever died, then this is the art of resurrection. Catalan artist Agustí Puig is acciaimed en the continent after a string of successful exhibitions across Spaín, Franco and Germary. His images proved a real show stopper in our Spirit of Barcelona group displays, and smaller works sold out en our stand al the recent Affordable Art Fair.
Now this great hopo of contemporary European painting is ciaiming a second solo showing in our Cork Street gallery.
Using a basic earthy ard fiery palette -- ochres, searing white, flame, terracotta, ash, charcoal Puig puts the colours of cave painters and industrialisation lo a new and impassioned purpose. He seduces our senses with the spontaneity el his lino and the sparks of his concentrated energy.
Steeped in the history of ad and the practice el Catalan adists (Picasso, Miró, Gris, Tápies) with a further hint of Britain's Roger Hilton - he expresses an astonishing rango el emotions with a minimum of motifs.
A face, a bottie, an arrow and, most of all, the contours of the female body can be traced within the abstract pattems el pictures which spill across oftenvast canvases, boards and paper sheets. They emerge from a frenzy el creation en the floor of a former factory - a process which also leaves the adist spattered and crusted in pigment.
Each el the pictures illustrated here is a new exploration. Al¡ express afresh the exhilaration of sensual experience and the joy of paint.
Painting never really died, of course. But in the latest ¡ve y works of Agustí Puig ¡t is kicking - and dancing and singing.