Tarrassó

CASIMIRO MARTÍNEZ TARRASSÓ (Sarrià, Barcelona, 1898 - Barcelona, 1980).
"Plaça de Madremanya, Girona" 1966.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower corner. Signed, titled and dated on the back.
Measurements: 81 x 100 cm; 100 x 119 cm (frame).

Representative work of Tarrassó's landscape and urban painting, focused on the expressive reinterpretation of the traditional Catalan architectural environment. The scene shows a view of the Madremanya square, where the artist transforms the urban space into a vibrant and emotional scenery, more suggested than described.

The composition is articulated from a dynamic play of volumes and planes, with facades that overlap and fold visually, generating depth and rhythm. The line is energetic and doughy, applied with a broad brushstroke and loaded with matter, which gives the surface a strong physical presence.

The deliberate deformations of the architecture and the free perspective reinforce the expressionist character of the work, distancing it from a topographical vision and placing it in the realm of personal interpretation.

The work reflects Tarrassó's interest in the inhabited landscape, understood as a space of memory and experience, and is fully inscribed in his production of the sixties, a period of artistic maturity in which the artist consolidated his own language, recognizable by its chromatic intensity and formal freedom.

Known simply as Tarrassó, he trained at the Escuela de La Lonja in Barcelona. Throughout his career Tarrassó was awarded the Pollença Prize at the 1st International Painting Competition in 1962; the Santiago Rusiñol Prize in 1972; and the medals obtained in various editions of the Salones de Otoño in Palma de Mallorca: first prize in 1967 and 1973, and honorary prize in 1970. His work is currently preserved in various national and international private collections, as well as in the Museum and Artistic Fund of Porreras (Mallorca) and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Palma.