Manuel Rivera

Manuel Rivera Hernández (Granada, 1927 - Madrid, 1995) was a Spanish painter and one of the founding members of the El Paso Group, the collective that introduced Informalism to postwar Spain. He trained in the workshop of a Granada sculptor and at the School of Arts and Crafts in Granada, and his early work was figurative. After the international course on abstract art held in Santander in 1953, he moved towards abstraction.

In 1956 he began using metal mesh as a support, first on wooden stretchers and later on aluminium. With it he explored space and light: leaving gaps between the mesh produced vibrations and iridescence that shaped all his later output. Around the 1960s colour returned to his work, and in 1964 the first "Espejos" appeared. In 1974 he produced the "Mandalas", and in 1977 he broke sharply with his earlier lyricism.

His legacy lies in treating matter as a mere vehicle for expression and in regarding the viewer as an active subject before the work. His archive is held at the Museo Reina Sofía.