The Mayor Gallery company logo
The Mayor Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • News
  • About
  • Stories
  • Contact
Artsy, opens in a new tab.
Artsy, opens in a new tab.
Menu

Artworks

Rafael Canogar, Pisas umbral de la muerte (You Walk the Threshold of Death), 1963
Rafael Canogar, Pisas umbral de la muerte (You Walk the Threshold of Death), 1963
Rafael Canogar, Pisas umbral de la muerte (You Walk the Threshold of Death), 1963
Rafael Canogar, Pisas umbral de la muerte (You Walk the Threshold of Death), 1963

Rafael Canogar Spainish, b. 1935

Pisas umbral de la muerte (You Walk the Threshold of Death), 1963
Oil on canvas
200 x 149 cm
78 3/4 x 58 5/8 inches
Enquire
%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22artist%22%3ERafael%20Canogar%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22title_and_year%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_title%22%3EPisas%20umbral%20de%20la%20muerte%20%28You%20Walk%20the%20Threshold%20of%20Death%29%3C/span%3E%2C%20%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_year%22%3E1963%3C/span%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22medium%22%3EOil%20on%20canvas%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22dimensions%22%3E200%20x%20149%20cm%3Cbr/%3E%0A78%203/4%20x%2058%205/8%20inches%3C/div%3E

Further images

  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) Thumbnail of additional image
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) Thumbnail of additional image
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 3 ) Thumbnail of additional image
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 4 ) Thumbnail of additional image
Text by the artist: The painting 'You Walk the Threshold of Death', from 1963 (title taken from a poem by Quevedo), is a very representative work of a time in...
Read more

Text by the artist:


The painting "You Walk the Threshold of Death", from 1963 (title taken from a poem by Quevedo), is a very representative work of a time in my life I was searching for a new kind of painting as an alternative to my Informalist period. It was a fundamental stage in my formation as an avant-garde artist, seeking to evolve and update my message, and not fall into an academization of an Informalist painting, that was born, above all, as an expression of freedom.


My new search focused on images coming to us through the media, where man was the protagonist. It was a more accessible kind of painting, with themes that reflected an unjust society that some of us wanted to change. It was not a return to figuration, but the invention of a new reality, an expression of a collective struggle.


The assassination of John F. Kennedy was one of the most shocking news of the time, which I needed to capture as a theme to give way to my grief for the tragedy, while giving content to my new pictorial work. I had spent some time in the United States, and I regarded Kennedy as the leader of a new way of thinking and acting, which gave me the impetus to visualize that moment of intense gravity.


Next to the image of Kennedy, who looks at us from the surface of the painting, there are other scenes that were part of his program, and his thoughts: the Space Adventure, and a group of guerrilla fighters that reference his involvement in Cuba.


These were salient elements of the life of the President, but here they become visual symbols that turned the pictorial surface into a painting, as well as a document of an historical event.

Close full details

Provenance

Gallery L'Attico, Rome

Private Collection, 1992

Private Collection, 1993

Private Collection, Madrid, 2009

Exhibitions

Rome, Galería L'Attico, Canogar, 30 April 1964
Madrid, Finarte Spain, El Paso, Review of the El Paso Group on its Fortieth Anniversary, 22 April – 14 May, 1997, travelling to London, Finarte, SA and Milan, Italy, Finarte Casa d'Aste SpA
Bilbao, Exhibition Hall BBK, El Paso, Forty Years, 1997

Madrid, Parque Ferial Juan Carlos, International Contemporary Art Fair, Arco’10, Feria Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo = Arco’10, Stand Oriol Galeria d’Art, 17 – 21 February 2010

Literature

Vergara, José and Boatto, Alberto, Canogar, Rome, L'Attico, 1964, cit. s/p, no. 2
Canogar, Catálogo General, Barcelona, Ediciones Ibérico 2 Mil, 1992, 2 vols, publication no. 92, cit., 241, Reg. No. 6318, vol.2

Contemporary art, London, Christie’s, 2 December 1993, ill. colour, p. 58, p.57, lot 226

Rivera Navarro, Marisa: El Paso. In SORIA, Martine and Rivera Navarro, Marisa: El Paso, Forty Years, Bilbao, Fundación Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa, 1997, ill. p. 13

Arnaiz, José Manuel and Rivera Navarro, Marisa, El Paso. Revisión del grupo El Paso Group en su cuarenta aniversario, Madrid, Finarte, 1997, ill. colour p. 11, with mixed media on canvas

Soria, Martine and Rivera Navarro, Marisa: El Paso, Cuarenta aniversario, Bilbao, Fundación Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa, 1997, ill. colour, p. 21, p. 60, with mixed media on canvas

Share
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Previous
|
Next
410 
of  596

Privacy Policy

Terms and Conditions

Go
Twitter, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Artsy, opens in a new tab.
Join the mailing list
Send an email
View on Google Maps
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2025 The Mayor Gallery
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences