Jaume Plensa

JAUME PLENSA (Barcelona, 1955).
“Constellation,” 1966.
Polymer print on Fabriano paper, edition 34/75.
Signed and dated in pencil.
Measurements: 57 x 34.5 cm (print); 70 x 38 cm (paper).

Jaume Plensa studied at the La Llotja School and the Sant Jordi School of Fine Arts, both in Barcelona. He excelled in sculpture, drawing, and printmaking. His work centers on the relationship between humans and their environment, often questioning the role of art in society and the position of the artist. He currently resides in Paris and was recently awarded an honorary doctorate by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Plensa began his career working with wrought iron mixed with polyester. Between 1983 and 1984, he began casting iron and developed a sculptural concept based on zoomorphic elements. His work evolved gradually, and he is now considered a pioneer of Spanish Neo-Expressionism. In the 1990s, he introduced changes to his work in terms of both materials and form, and began using diverse materials such as scrap metal, polyester, and resins. During these years, he created series of walls, doors, and architectural structures, seeking to give space a central role. Between 1999 and 2003, Plensa became one of the pillars of the global theater design scene, reinterpreting—in collaboration with “La Fura dels Baus”—four classical operas by Falla, Debussy, Berlioz, and Mozart, and, working solo, a contemporary theatrical production, “La pareti della solitudine,” by Ben Jelloun. He has held solo and group exhibitions around the world, most notably the retrospective held at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in 2000. In June 2008, he unveiled his work “Breathing” at the BBC headquarters in London—a monument dedicated to journalists who died in the line of duty. Throughout his career, he has received numerous honors, such as the Medal of the Order of Arts and Letters in 1993, awarded by the French Ministry of Culture, and the National Prize for Visual Arts in 1997, from the Government of Catalonia. Considered one of the leading figures of the new Spanish art movement with expressionist tendencies, his work is featured in the finest national and international galleries and art fairs, as well as in major museums in Europe and the United States, such as the MOMA in New York, the Kemper Museum in Kansas, the Patio Herreriano Museum in Valladolid, the Palazzo Forti in Verona, the MACBA, and the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid.