José Navarro Vives

JOSÉ NAVARRO VIVES (Castelsarrasin, France, 1931-Barcelona, 2023).
"Onions". 1979.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 27 x 35 cm; 47 x 55 cm (frame).
In his still lifes, José Navarro saturates the colors and reduces the forms to such a degree that the objects seem to float in a metaphysical void of great poetic force.
While still a child, Navarro moved with his family to Barcelona. There he began his training at the School of Arts and Crafts, and later at the Superior School of Fine Arts. He won first prize at the University Painting Exhibition, which allowed him to participate for the first time in group exhibitions in Barcelona and Madrid in 1955 and 1956. In 1957 he obtained a scholarship from the French government to further his studies at the School of Fine Arts in Paris and at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. In the French capital he comes into contact with a different artistic and intellectual panorama, which opens him to new ideas. After this period he travels, again with a scholarship, to London, where he attends classes at Saint Martin's School of Art. This stage represents the end of his training and the beginning of his professional life. In London he participates in collective and individual exhibitions, and wins first prize in the British Railway poster competition. In 1963 he settled permanently in Barcelona. His style has had two distinct facets. On the one hand, he approaches the reality of form through geometric approaches. On the other hand, he works a constructivist kinetic style. After his first solo exhibition, at the Liberty Gallery in London in 1958, Navarro has organized personal exhibitions in Spain, England, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Panama and the United States. His work is present in the British Crown Museum, the Mairie de Castelsarrasin, the Contemporary Art Museums of Bilbao, Ibiza, Madrid and Seville, the Museum of Figueras, and the Castillo de San José in Lanzarote, as well as in important private collections in Spain, France, England and the United States.