Pere Pruna

PERE PRUNA OCERANS (Barcelona, 1904 - 1977).
"Recumbent Bullfighter", 1937.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Patch on the back
With labels of the Sala Parés and the Artur Ramon Gallery, Barcelona, on the back.
Measurements: 70 x 115 cm; 92 x 135,5 cm (frame).
Pere Pruna manages to transmit the serene beauty of the recumbent bullfighter using a palette of very few colours but endowing them with a rich tonal variety, at the same time as he handles a synthetic stroke that condenses the enigmatic palpitation of a repose that could be eternal. Solid lights build the features, softly modelling the oval and the curved line of the closed eyelids. The sequins and jewels of the costume sparkle with nuanced silver glints that continue on the side band of the long legs sheathed in a red stiletto. The red of the trousers and the sheen of the black leather of the shoes interrupt the rich range of silver tones that dominate the lyrical atmosphere.
A mainly self-taught artist, Pere Pruna completed his training at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona. After beginning to exhibit in Barcelona when he was still very young, he travelled to Paris in 1921, where he was helped and guided by Picasso. In the French capital he held a successful one-man show at the Galerie Percier, and came into contact with intellectuals such as Cocteau, Drieu la Rochelle, Max Jacob and others, with whom he founded the magazine "Philosophie" in 1924. Serge Diaghilev, who visited one of his exhibitions, also asked him to create the sets and costumes for the ballet "Les matelots" in 1925. From then on, he also worked on other musical works, such as "La vie de Polichinele" (1934) and "Oriane" (1938), among others. In 1928 he won second prize in the Carnegie Institute exhibition in Pittsburg and later, on his return to Barcelona, he won other awards such as the "Montserrat seen by Catalan artists" competition (1931) and the Nonell Prize (1936). The latter was surrounded by controversy, because Pruna won it for his oil painting "El vi de Chios", for which he used a photograph published in a Parisian pornographic magazine as a model. In response to the uproar, Pruna withdrew the prize, but the jury upheld its decision. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, Pruna settled in Paris and continued his international exhibition activity, most notably the exhibition organised in London in 1937. At the same time he worked for Ridruejo's propaganda services, with works such as the poster commemorating the promulgation of the Labour Force, and Eugenio d'Ors, National Head of Fine Arts, introduced him to the Spanish representation at the Venice Biennale in 1938. After the war he combined easel painting exhibitions with mural painting, a genre in which his work in the Monastery of Montserrat was particularly celebrated. In 1965 he won the City of Barcelona Prize, and three years later he was appointed academician of the Far de Sant Cristòfor. Pere Pruna is currently represented in the Museum of Montserrat, where there is a space named after him, the MACBA in Barcelona and the Maricel Museum in Sitges, among others.