Joan Ponç

JOAN PONÇ BONET (Barcelona, 1927 - Saint-Paul, France, 1984).
"Number 7", 1975-77.
Ink and gouache on paper.
Signed, dated and located ("Colliure, La Roca, Ceret") in the lower right corner.
With Joan Prats and Biosca room labels on the back.
Measurements: 69 x 64 cm; 84,5 x 79,5 cm (frame).

Joan Ponç develops in this work, of powerful and disturbing vision, one of the most singular languages of the Spanish postwar art. In it, the dreamlike and the disturbing are articulated through a deeply personal imagery. The central figure, constructed as an organic and mechanical assemblage, is presented as a hybrid being, halfway between the human, the symbolic and the fantastic.

The meticulous, almost obsessive drawing is combined with a precise application of color that accentuates the strange and disturbing character of the image. Floating elements and inverted figures reinforce the sensation of instability, creating a mental space where physical laws seem suspended. This tension between technical control and overflowing imagination is one of the keys to Ponç's work.

A founding member of the Dau al Set group, Ponç is situated in the post-war Spanish artistic avant-garde, developing his own universe influenced by surrealism and European magical currents. His works on paper from this late period are especially valued for their graphic precision and for condensing, with great intensity, his most characteristic imaginary.

A painter and draftsman trained in Barcelona, Joan Ponç began his career after his first solo exhibition in 1946. In 1948 he was one of the founders of the avant-garde group Dau al Set, an essential nucleus of the artistic renovation of the Catalan post-war period. In the early fifties he participated in the main national and international artistic forums and, after a stay in Paris, he moved to Brazil, where he lived from 1953 to 1962 and consolidated his international projection.

He is currently represented at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo, the Patio Herreriano Museum in Valladolid, the MACBA in Barcelona, the Basque Center-Museum of Contemporary Art in Vitoria, the Museum of L'Empordà and the Reina Sofía National Museum and Art Center.