Maties Palau Ferré

MATIES PALAU FERRÉ (Montblanc, Tarragona, 1924 - 2000).
"Vase".
Oil on canvas.
Signed.
Measurements: 100 x 50 cm; 106 x 56 cm (frame).

Work belonging to the stage of maturity of the artist, characterized by the expressive use of color, the material brushstroke and the reiteration of the floral motif as a compositional axis.

The vase is one of Palau Ferré's central motifs, along with the rooster, the female figure and the portrait. It is not a traditional still life, but a structural and chromatic pretext.

The brushstroke is doughy and visible, with a material charge, close to post-impressionism and lyrical expressionism. The flowers are reduced to almost schematic volumes, with a balance between figuration and abstract synthesis. This type of composition belongs to the fully representative works, highly sought after by collectors, as it brings together subject matter, stylized vertical format and an intense palette characteristic of his artistic maturity.

Palau Ferré was a Catalan painter trained in Barcelona and Paris, where he came into contact with the historical avant-garde. Admirer of Matisse, Picasso and Rouault, he developed his own language, marked by intense color, formal simplification and a direct and emotive painting.

From the fifties onwards he achieved great popularity, both in Catalonia and in the international market. However, a legal conflict with a dealer, who wanted to appropriate his future production, led the artist to a radical gesture: he progressively abandoned commercial painting and even destroyed much of his own work, becoming an almost legendary figure.

Today Palau Ferré is considered a singular case of 20th century Spanish art, valued both for the aesthetic coherence of his work and for the expressive force of his compositions.