Josep Maria Subirachs

JOSEP MARIA SUBIRACHS (Barcelona, 1927–2014).
Untitled, 1957.
Ink on paper. Double-sided work.
Two drawings on the same support, one on each side.
Signed and dated.
Measurements: 26 x 18 cm.

Dated 1957—a pivotal year in Subirachs’s evolution toward abstraction—this drawing coincides with the creation of *Forma 212*, considered the first abstract sculpture installed in a public space in Barcelona. Following his Expressionist period and his stay in Belgium, the artist was then moving toward a visual language in which the tension between matter, geometry, void, and structure would come to play a fundamental role.

In both compositions, the economical use of ink and the prominence given to the voids create a marked sense of tension and balance, establishing clear affinities with the sculptural explorations Subirachs was undertaking during those same years around solids and voids, projections, and concavities. The two-sided nature of the piece further adds interest to the drawing as an autonomous space for experimentation.

Josep Maria Subirachs was one of the key figures in Catalan sculpture during the second half of the 20th century. After working with Enric Monjo and Enric Casanovas and living in Belgium between 1954 and 1956, he developed an early international career; in 1957 he won the bronze medal at the Mediterranean Biennial in Alexandria, and the following year he received the Sant Jordi Grand Prize and the Julio González Sculpture Prize. Espai Subirachs Decades later, she undertook her most monumental project, the Passion Facade of the Sagrada Família, to which she devoted nearly twenty years. Her work is represented, among other institutions, at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya.