Salvador Alarma Tastàs

SALVADOR ALARMA TASTÀS (Barcelona, 1870 - 1941).
"Palatial interior", 1930.
Watercolor on paper.
Signed and dated in the upper left corner.
Measurements: 22 x 37 cm; 64 x 72 cm (frame).

Painter, watercolorist, decorator and modernist scenographer, as well as teacher of painters like Josep Mestres or Salvador Sabatés, Salvador Alarma began his training at the School of La Llotja, where he had as teachers Josep Planella and Ramon Amado. He learned the techniques of scenography with Francesc Soler i Rovirosa, and in 1888 he went to work in the workshops of his uncle, Miquel Moragas, of which he would later become the owner. He soon made his first stage productions at the Teatre Circ Barcelonès. In 1899 he began his long collaboration with Adrià Gual's Teatre Íntim, and in 1911 he became the main animator of the new experience of the Teatre de la Naturalesa. Two years later he also began to work for opera plays, being a constant presence in the Liceu's performances. In 1910 he won first prize in the category of establishments in the Annual Competition for Artistic Buildings of the Barcelona City Council, and in 1927 he was appointed director of the scenography section of the Institut del Teatre of the same city. He also carried out works abroad, such as the paintings on the ceiling of the Teatro Cervantes in Buenos Aires, in 1921. He was also the author of the original decoration of the Metropol Theatre in Tarragona, and several of the decorative paintings of the Pedralbes Palace (1927) are also by his hand. Alarma is currently represented in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, among other prominent public and private collections.