Josep Guinovart

JOSEP GUINOVART BERTRAN (Barcelona, 1927 - 2007).
"Signs of the moon", 1990-99.
Mixed media on panel.
Signed and dated in the lower margin, dated on the back.
Measurements: 199 x120 cm; 201 x 122 cm (frame).

In the nineties, when this work was made, Guinovart had already overcome the more aggressively materialistic phases of the sixties and seventies and was in a period of synthesis. At this stage his use of mixed media becomes more sophisticated: textures are more subtly integrated into the pictorial plane. Likewise, he recovers rural motifs, especially linked to his childhood in Agramunt: the earth, wheat, agriculture, but already converted into abstract and universal signs. This process of abstraction can be seen here in the use of symbols such as the ladder, the schematic faces, the spiral ... The work combines paint with diverse materials that create a tactile surface in which dense color fields stand out, such as the blacks with rough texture or the intense reds that stand out in relief. A spherical shape in earth tones and light blue that seems suspended, almost planetary, perhaps evoking the "moon" of the title, with a subtle shading that gives it volume. Also, graphite line drawings evoke human and architectural elements. A contrast is sought between the geometric (lines, grids, cylinders) and the organic (gestural strokes, eroded textures). A predominantly white background allows each element to stand out with graphic strength.

Josep Guinovart was trained at the Escuela de Maestros Pintores, at the Escuela de Artes y Oficios and in the classes of the FAD. He exhibited individually for the first time in the Syra galleries in Barcelona in 1948. He immediately acquired a solid prestige, collaborated with Dau al Set and participated in the salons of October, Jazz and Eleven. In the fifties, thanks to a scholarship, he lived in Paris, where he became deeply acquainted with the work of Cézanne and Matisse, who, together with Miró and Gaudí, would be his most important influences. In 1955, together with Aleu, Cuixart, Muxart, Mercadé, Tàpies and Tharrats, he formed the Taüll group, which brought together the avant-garde artists of the time. Towards 1957 he began an informalist and abstract tendency, with a strong material presence both by the incorporation of various elements and objects (burnt wood, boxes, waste objects) and by the application of techniques such as collage and assemblage. From the 1960s onwards, he moved away from the informalist poetics and began to create works full of signs and gestures, which contain a strong expressive charge in the lines and colors. During the seventies he systematically used materials such as sand, earth, mud, straw or fiber cement, and in the following decade he focused on experimentation with the three-dimensional projection of his works, which took the form of the creation of environments or spatial environments such as the one entitled Contorn-extorn (1978). Guinovart has a very varied artistic production: mural paintings, sets and theatrical scenery, such as the one made for Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding, book illustrations, poster design, tapestries and sculptures. He participated in the Biennials of São Paulo (1952 and 1957), Alexandria (1955) and Venice (1958, 1962 and 1982), and his awards include the City of Barcelona in 1981, the National Plastic Arts in 1990 and the Plastic Arts of the Generalitat in 1990. In 1994 the Guinovart Space was inaugurated in Agramunt, Lérida, a private foundation that has a permanent exhibition of the artist. He is represented in the Museums of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, Madrid and Mexico City, the Museum of Outdoor Sculpture in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao, the Museo San Telmo in San Sebastián, the Museo Eusebio Sempere in Alicante, the Museo de Navarra in Tafalla, the Casa de las Américas in Havana, the Bocchum Museum in Germany, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Long Island, New York, and the Museo Patio Herreriano in Valladolid.