Jordi Alumá

JORDI ALUMÀ MASVIDAL (Barcelona, 1924-2021).
"Vista de l'esglesia de la Mercé".
Oil on panel.
Signed in the upper left corner.
Measurements: 41 x 33 cm; 55 x 46 cm (frame).

Son of the draftsman and poster artist José Alumà, he studied at the Massana School, and was a disciple of F. Labarta and A. Gelabert. In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, he began to work in the workshop of the sculptor Felipe Coscolla y Plana but left sculpture and went on to study in the painting workshop of the Commissariat of Propaganda of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In 1939 he had to work in the industrial painting workshop Casa Vendrell in Casanova Street in Barcelona. In 1941 he entered the craft workshops of the Salesians of Sarriá where he was oriented towards the painting of altarpieces by the master Petruccio Canzio. He worked in the workshop of the sculptor Manel Martí y Cabrer and extended his training with trips to Italy, the Netherlands, France, the United States, etc. His early works are predominantly religious in character and of a medieval aesthetic. In the sixties he adopted the figurativism that characterizes him and delved into sports themes. He is the author of several Olympic suites, such as the one for the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico, and the pictorial decoration of the presidential hall of the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne in 1988, commissioned by Juan Antonio Samaranch. He also did the mural decoration of the Archive of Accounts, in the Palau de la Generalitat in 1975 and the offices of the Atlantic Bank in New York (1983). In the mid-1970s, commissioned by the Barcelona construction and development company La Llave de Oro, he painted murals to decorate some of the lobbies of the Olimpia Building. He has been internationally accredited as one of the greatest connoisseurs of the altarpiece technique and was a professor at the Llotja School from 1953 to 1989. He has won numerous awards, such as the Biennial of Sports in Fine Arts (1967), the City of Barcelona (1978) and the Ynglada Guillot (1980). In 2000 he received the Sant Jordi Cross. Alumà has exhibited all over the world, in countries such as Switzerland, Japan, the United States, France and Brazil. In Spain, he exhibits regularly at Sala Parés. He has been awarded, among other prizes, the San Jorge de la Diputación de Barcelona (1956), the Bienal del Deporte en las Bellas Artes (1967), the Ciudad de Barcelona (1978) and the Ynglada Guillot (1980), as well as the Cruz de Sant Jordi in 2000.