In this picture we find ourselves facing an impassable wall, with broken ladders telling us there is no way out, an idea reinforced by the terrifying barbed wire and those sharp pieces of broken glass blocking our path.

This silent landscape is a perfect example of the art of Leopoldo Nóvoa. His work is a systematic mixture of ideas reflecting his numerous travels. He was the son of a Uruguayan diplomat of Galician descent and lived in various countries before settling in Paris, where he pursued his artistic career, in 1965. A man of literary leanings, he studied architecture, finally devoting himself to painting and sculpture.

His initial figurative style, followed by a period of expressionism, finally led to a conceptual Informalismo in which his interest in space, light and material was evident. He is identified, to a degree, with Lucio Fontana (1899-1968), although he was mainly influenced by the of Joaquín Torres García (1874-1949) and the theories of Jorge Oteiza (1908-2003).

The influence of architecture is obvious in both his paintings and his sculptures. His works are volumetric and irregular. He created spaces by stretching the canvas over various elements, making it seem as if they are trying to “come out”, producing very pronounced reliefs and a play of tension between powerful lights and shadows. Another crucial element of his work is the material itself, which is almost pure pigment, creating surfaces which convey a mysterious beauty and encourage the viewer to meditate on it.

1979 was a momentous year for Leopoldo Nóvoa’s art. A fire in his Paris studio destroyed over two thousand works, reducing his past to ashes. From then on he began to paint non-stop, giving greater importance to his use of material, especially the ash he salvaged from the fire, which he mixed with pigment. He made it his main resource, using it almost obsessively. His colour palette became restrained and austere, reduced to white, black and grey, but without losing that complex beauty achieved by the simplest means.

This untitled piece is part of the series Next Time the Fire, which he produced between 1993 and 1998. It became Nóvoa’s best known series, in which he reflects on human emancipation and the relationship between race and religion, on the basis of James Baldwin’s writings. The influence of the Uruguayan artist Joaquín Torres García (1874-1949) was also crucial, in the organised use of geometric and primitive forms. The series therefore reflects the decadent state of society and the fears of humanity faced with the threats of a fragile, uncertain world.

The work sums up the basic elements of Nóvoa’s artistic style. Volume and material combine to create a bleak scene with equally bleak boundary walls. As in other works he uses string, in this case to make the ladders. He also uses pieces of glass, which he places on the wall to make it impassable. A large black tangle of ash and barbed wire expresses the tragedy of the ties of bondage.