Rafael Bartolozzi

RAFAEL BARTOLOZZI (Pamplona, 1943 - Vespella de Gaià, Tarragona, 2009).
Untitled.
Etching, copy 52/99.
Signed and justified in pencil.
Measurements: 49 x 34 cm (plate); 65 x 50 cm (paper).

Painter and sculptor whose full name is Rafael Lozano Bartolozzi. He studied at the School of Fine Arts of Barcelona and at the School of Mural Painting of Sant Cugat del Vallès. Between 1966 and 1968 he worked with Eduardo Arranz, Gerard Sala and Robert Llimós. Until 1982 he continued to work together with Arranz, although both kept their own artistic personality. Bartolozzi did not substantially modify his style, but included in his work elements of erotic suggestion, progressively configured with greater clarity. Both of them were the introducers of the "happening" in Catalonia. In 1980 he participated in the Venice Biennale. He worked with various techniques, such as ceramics, illustration and sculpture, as well as mural and easel painting. Settled since 1972 in Vespella de Gaià, where he was mayor, he promoted numerous cultural activities in the town, such as the open-air sculpture park. In 2007 the Bartolozzi Foundation was created in that town, with the aim of collecting and disseminating his work, as well as promoting the work of new artists. He is also represented in the MACBA in Barcelona, the Camón Aznar Museum in Zaragoza, the Contemporary Art Museums in Seville and Las Palmas, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Navarra, among others.