Joan Ponç Bonet

JOAN PONÇ BONET (Barcelona, 1927 – Saint-Paul, France, 1984).
"Large Square Suite A."
Gouache and India ink on paper.
Signed on the reverse.
Listed in the artist’s digital catalog raisonné.
Published in “Lubar,” Ediciones Polígrafa, p. 383.
Measurements: 70 x 70 cm; 93 x 93 cm (frame).

This work belongs to one of Joan Ponç’s most rigorous and conceptually refined series, in which the artist moves away from the fantastical imagery of his early periods to explore a symbolic language rooted in the cosmic and mathematical. The composition is structured around essential geometric forms—circle, triangle, cone—suspended in a silent, almost metaphysical space.

The black disc, dotted like a celestial chart, interacts with vectors and arcs drawn with almost scientific precision, while small dots and lines suggest orbits, trajectories, or invisible energies. Ponç thus creates an autonomous universe where science, mysticism, and visual poetry converge, in tune with his esoteric concerns and his interest in the hidden structures of the cosmos.

A painter and draftsman trained in Barcelona, Joan Ponç was one of the founders of the avant-garde group Dau al Set, a core group in the postwar Catalan artistic renewal. In the 1950s, he participated in major national and international art forums, and after a stay in Paris, he moved to Brazil, where he lived until 1962 and established his international reputation.

His work is currently represented in the Museum of Contemporary Art at 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 Art Center.