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Manuel Teodoro Pascual (April 15, 1902 – January 11, 1983), known as Manolo Pascual, was a Spanish sculptor whose style evolved from youthful classical beginnings in Europe, to primitivist  influenced experimentation in the Dominican Republic, and then to new complexities of metal sculpture in New York. Exiled from Europe by the Spanish Civil War, he became an influential creator and teacher of art in North America.

The European Period

At age 13, Pascual began art studies in Madrid at the Academia de Belles Artes de San Fernando. Three years later he graduated, winning the Gold Medal for Sculpture. During the 1920's and 30's, the Spanish government awarded him scholarships in Paris and Rome. Before the Spanish Civil War in 1936, he exhibited his sculpture in France, England, Italy, and Spain. In 1938, he became a battlefront Captain in the Republican army. After Franco's victory in 1939, he escaped to France. Along with other artist and intellectual refugees, he obtained a visa for emigration to the Dominican Republic.

The Dominican Period

The Spanish exiles found themselves in a tropical land where art reflected Afro-Caribbean and indigenous cultures. The refugee artists began to have a marked effect upon Dominican art. Pascual and another of these artists founded the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, and Trujillo, the President of the Republic, named Pascual as the first Director. Pascual was not only an extremely influential teacher, but he matured in his unique approaches to sculpture in many mediums: clay, wood, marble, plaster, tin, wrought iron, bronze, and welded steel.

The New York Period

After over a decade in Santo Domingo, Pascual moved to New York in 1951 and taught at The New School for Social Research for nearly three decades. Here he was in a turbulent art environment dominated by abstract expressionism, but he kept to his unique varieties of style in perfecting his iron-based forms. Artistic acclaim in his new country came to him during the 1950's, and he exhibited in several states before ill health forced his retirement.