Pere Pruna

PERE PRUNA OCERANS (Barcelona, 1904 - 1977).
"Nude".1960.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
With label of the Parés room on the back.
Measurements: 90 x 71 cm; 117 x 89 cm (frame).

The painting presents a naked young woman, seated on a bed of white sheets. Her posture is collected and contained: legs bent, ankles crossed, in an attitude of repose or recollection. Because of the disposition of the body, the viewer does not perceive the nude from the front, but through the soft, undulating lines of the chest, belly and hips, which are subtly insinuated rather than shown.

The young woman's face, with its clean profile and long neck, is one of the visual focal points of the work: her expression, wide-eyed and staring straight ahead, combines a slight inner tension with a bodily stillness, creating a sense of psychological contrast: an apparent calm beneath which beats a certain restrained emotion or intimate disturbance. In her left hand, the young woman holds a white handkerchief.

The background is divided into two planes: on one side, a dark blue curtain, which adds depth and solemnity to the whole; on the other, a wall decorated with bluish plant-inspired motifs, which introduce a soft decorative rhythm and reinforce the sensation of domestic intimacy.

The ensemble conveys silence, restraint and elegance, with a balance between sensuality and serenity that characterizes Pruna.

A mainly self-taught artist, Pere Pruna completed his training at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona. After beginning to exhibit in Barcelona when he was still very young, he traveled to Paris in 1921, where he was helped and guided by Picasso. In the French capital he held a successful solo exhibition at the Galerie Percier, and came into contact with intellectuals such as Cocteau, Drieu la Rochelle, Max Jacob and others, with whom he founded the magazine "Philosophie" in 1924. Serge Diaghilev, who visited one of his exhibitions, also proposed him to create the sets and costumes for the ballet "Les matelots" in 1925. Since then he also worked on other musical works, such as "La vie de Polichinele" (1934) and "Oriane" (1938), among others. In 1928 he obtained the second absolute prize in the exhibition of the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburg and later, on his return to Barcelona, he obtained other awards such as the competition "Montserrat seen by the Catalan artists" (1931) or the Nonell Prize (1936). The latter was surrounded by controversy, because Pruna obtained it for his oil painting "El vi de Chios", for which he used as a model a photograph published in a Parisian pornographic magazine. In view of the commotion caused, Pruna renounced the prize, but the jury ratified its decision. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, Pruna settled in Paris and continued his international exhibition activity, with an exhibition organized in London in 1937. At the same time he worked for Ridruejo's propaganda services, with works such as the poster commemorating the promulgation of the Labor Force, and Eugenio d'Ors, National Head of Fine Arts, introduced him to the Spanish representation at the Venice Biennale in 1938. After the war, he combined easel painting exhibitions with mural painting, a genre in which his work in the Monastery of Montserrat was especially celebrated. In 1965 he won the City of Barcelona award, and three years later he was named academician of the Far de Sant Cristòfor. Pere Pruna is currently represented in the Museum of Montserrat, where there is a space with his name, the MACBA in Barcelona and the Maricel Museum in Sitges, among others.