Josep Maria Vayreda Canadell

JOSEP MARIA VAYREDA CANADELL (Olot, Girona, 1932 - Girona, 2001).
"Cases de Onyar", Girona.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner. Signed and located on the back.
Measurements: 130 x 200 cm; 143 x 214 cm (frame).

Josep Maria Vayreda was born into a family closely linked to art. His great-uncle Joaquim Vayreda was the founder of the landscape school of Olot, and his uncle Mariá Vayreda was a painter and writer. Despite his close ties to the Olot school, Vayreda Canadell never followed its aesthetic premises, but was inclined towards a very personal realism. He developed his training at the School of Fine Arts of this city, and already in his academic stage he began a process of simplification of figurative elements. Later he entered the world of abstraction and informalism, to return to figuration in 1958, not as a break with the previous stage but as a synthesis: his is a structured figuration based on an arrangement of geometric shapes. In his paintings he captured his personal vision of the world, both of the cities (from Olot to New York), as well as terraces, interiors of cafés... Landscapes, rural or urban, figures and still lifes constitute his thematic repertoire. His first exhibition took place at the Sala Jardí in Barcelona in 1958. That same year he moved to Paris, where both his fame and his clientele increased. Among his first clients were Queen Paola of Belgium and actors such as Glenn Ford and Fred MacMurray. But the person responsible for his definitive international projection was the American collector Jerome Soloman who, at the beginning of the 60's, bought a large part of his work and exhibited it in his native country. Vayreda exhibited his work in numerous European cities, such as London, The Hague and Paris, and in North America, including Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York. His work is present in museums all over the world, but he is especially appreciated in the United States.