Josep Cañas

JOSEP CAÑAS I CAÑAS (Banyeres del Penedés, Tarragona, 1905 - El Vendrell, Tarragona, 2001).
"Sardana".
Bronze.
Signed.
Measurements: 26 x 35 cm (sculpture); 44 x 54 cm (total).
Josep Cañas, a self-taught draughtsman and sculptor, took some courses at the School of Arts and Crafts of Villanueva y la Geltrú, together with Damià Torrents and Joaquín Mir. He began his career as a landscape painter, and in 1932 he made his individual debut at the Sala Parés in Barcelona. Three years later he would travel to London and Paris thanks to a scholarship. After the war he worked with Ignacio Zuloaga and won several awards, and between 1947 and 1955 he settled in Mexico, where he made paintings of indigenous themes. He was awarded the Cross of Sant Jordi by the Generalitat de Catalunya (1986), and in 1987 he was named illustrious son of his native town. In 2001 the house where he was born was turned into a museum, where the four stages of his work can be observed chronologically. He is represented in the Museums of Contemporary Art of Barcelona, Bilbao and Madrid and in the Anthropological Museum of Mexico.