Josep Viladomat

JOSEP VILADOMAT MASSANAS (Manlleu, Barcelona, 1899 – Escaldes-Engordany, Andorra, 1989).
“Female Figure.”
Marble.
Signed.
Measurements: 62 x 23 x 23 cm; 66 cm (total height with base).
Exhibitions: MEAM “A Century of Catalan Sculpture,” 2013. Reproduced in the catalog, p. 270.

This delicate freestanding marble figure showcases the full range of Josep Viladomat’s figurative style, deeply influenced by the Mediterranean spirit and the post-Noucentista transitional classicism. The work depicts a seated, semi-nude female figure, with her right leg slightly raised and her foot resting on a ledge. The young woman holds a cloth or tunic in her left hand while resting her right arm, crossed over her leg, creating a play of serene curves and very balanced contours.
Here, Viladomat combines the sensuality and firmness of the female anatomy—clearly reminiscent of the sculpture of Aristide Maillol and the Greek classics—with a clean, refined treatment, free from academic drama or artifice. Notable is the delicate transition between the smooth polish of the skin and the fluid, heavily draped modeling of the cloth falling down the sides of the figure, achieving a remarkable richness of textures and nuances in the light.

A renowned sculptor, Josep Viladomat initially worked in Barcelona as a stonecutter for other sculptors, as well as at a company that produced molds for artistic reproductions and in the workshops of Eusebi Arnau, Rafael Atché, and Joan Borrell Niolau. He participated in the founding of the group Los Evolucionistas in 1917, alongside Rebull and Granyer, and was the only sculptor among them. This group sought to react against Modernism by pursuing a form of realism rooted in Catalan Baroque art, as well as in their great admiration for Maillol and the Greek sculptors. Viladomat exhibited for the first time in 1918, and in 1923 he received first prize at the Barcelona Municipal Fine Arts Exhibition for his “Maternity,” which enabled him to finance a trip to Italy and Paris. His first solo exhibition took place in 1929, upon his return from this trip. His successes continued in the following years, culminating in the Campeny Prize for sculpture in 1936 and the prize at the Fine Arts Exhibition organized by the Ministry of Public Instruction in Barcelona in 1938. During these years, he also participated in the decoration of the offices of the Catalan Government’s departments of culture and finance. Before the war, he had created the “Monument to Fortuny” in Reus, the “Saint Francis of Assisi” in Montserrat, the “Monument to Pearson” in the Pedralbes neighborhood, and the monument dedicated to “The Republic” for the Cinc d’Oros district of Barcelona. He later moved to Andorra, and upon his return in 1950, he accepted all kinds of commissions, ranging from processional floats to the equestrian statue of General Franco, as well as public fountains, monuments, and decorative sculptures for parks, such as “La Puntaire” in Barcelona’s Montjuïc Park. Apart from the “Mediterraneanism” characteristic of Catalan sculptors of his generation, Viladomat developed a realistic style that, after passing through phases of Donatellian influence, took shape in works characterized by a certain modernized, virtuosic anecdotalism. This sculptor is currently represented at the National Art Museum of Catalonia, as well as at the Escaldes-Engordany Art Center, where the collection of sculptures previously on display at the Viladomat Museum has been relocated.