Armand Cardona Torrandell

ARMAND CARDONA TORRANDELL (Barcelona, 1928 – Sant Pere de Ribes, Barcelona, 1995).
“Virgen,” 1968.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 65 x 54 cm, 67 x 56 cm (frame).

Armando Cardona Torrandell began drawing comic strips in the 1940s, during his adolescence, and later studied commercial law and worked in various trades, all while training himself as an artist. During these years, he mainly produced drawings from life of scenes and people from his neighborhood, until finally, in the 1950s, he began to paint. In 1952, while taking a course at the Institut del Teatre, he met the brothers Joan and Ricart Salvat i Ferré, through whom he was introduced to the intellectual circles of Barcelona at the time. He also discovered the city’s underbelly, adding to his usual maritime themes darker, less bucolic scenes featuring criminals, beggars, and prostitutes. It was around this time that he decided to devote himself entirely to painting, and in 1957 he held his first exhibition, which took place at the Galeries Laietanes in Barcelona. From then on, his artistic evolution would be rapid, as he moved away from his early themes to focus on the human face and on experimentation and play with materials, volumes, and textures, as seen in his Informalist period (1959–62). Cardona Torrandell thus began to carve out a niche for himself in the Spanish avant-garde, and in the early 1960s he began exhibiting his work outside of Catalonia, managing to make a living from his painting and no longer relying on his mother’s financial support. In 1965, he began exhibiting regularly in Madrid, and that same year he undertook his first set design project, creating the sets for “Ronda de mort a Sinera,” with a libretto by Salvador Espriu. A year later, she undertook the same task for Bertolt Brecht’s “The Good Person of Szechwan,” directed by Ricard Salvat. Around this time, she also began exhibiting in Italy, first at the Prima Mostra Intrarrealismo in Florence. She also collaborated with the Sitges Theater Festival. He became involved with the Parpalló Group and was a member of Crónica de la Realidad and Intrarealismo. In 1971, he was awarded the Ynglada-Guillot Prize for drawing, and in 2015, his work was included in the exhibition “Del segon origen. Arts a Catalunya 1950–1977,” held at the MNAC. His work, a visual testimony to the contemporary world, is characterized by colorful compositions filled with human faces, calligraphic elements, and inscriptions, which define his personal iconography. He organized his work into cycles: “Retablos de la gente” (1956), “Barcas,” “Máquinas” (1957), “Concrete Landscapes” (1960), “Concentration Universe” (1965), “Numancia” (1972), “Shipwrecks” (1979), etc. He also created several works in homage to Sartre, Antonio Machado, Ungaretti, and Lluís Companys. Cardona Torrandell’s work is currently represented in the Víctor Balaguer Museum in Vilanova i la Geltrú, the Vila Casas Foundation, the Rafael Zabaleta Museum, and other public and private collections.