Joan Abelló

JOAN ABELLÓ PRAT (Mollet del Vallés, Barcelona, 1922 - Barcelona, 2008).
"Landscape with houses", 1955.
Mixed media on paper.
Signed and dated in the lower right-hand corner.
Measurements: 47 x 64.5 cm; 82.5 x 65 cm (frame).
Painter and engraver, Joan Abelló trained at the Baixas Academy in Barcelona and at that of Pere Pruna. In his formative years, the works that Joaquín Mir had produced in Mollet had an important influence on him. He excelled especially as a landscape painter, with a post-impressionist style with a tendency towards expressionism. He completed his studies with trips to London, Belgium, Paris and the Isle of Man, among other places. In the 1960s he returned to his native town, where he again became interested in the landscapes of the Vallés and the Mediterranean, although he did not abandon his extensive travels in Europe, Africa, the Ivory Coast, Morocco and Brazil. An outstanding collector, in 1996 he donated his art collection to Mollet Town Council, which created the Joan Abelló Municipal Museum three years later. Attached to the museum is the artist's birthplace, which since 2002 has housed a restoration workshop and art studies centre. He is represented in the museum that bears his name, as well as in the MACBA in Barcelona, the Courtauld Collection in London, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the Vatican Museum, the Poldersmuseum in Belgium and the Francesc Galí Legacy.