Fidel Bofill

FIDEL BOFILL I BOSCH (Vic, Barcelona, 1934 – Vic, Barcelona, 2013)
“Landscape.”
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 55 x 45 cm; 77 x 67 cm (frame).

This landscape exemplifies Fidel Bofill’s evolution from a Post-Impressionist observation of nature toward a freer approach, closer to Informalism and abstraction. The mountainous terrain retains its recognizable character but is subordinated to the autonomous power of color and painterly texture, which become the true constructive elements of the image.

Bofill avoids descriptive perspective and organizes space through successive bands of color. The paint accumulates in some areas and thins out in others, revealing the traces of the painting process. The small tree in the foreground acts as a vertical axis within an expansive, almost overflowing natural landscape, while the dark silhouette of the mountains provides stability to the chromatic intensity of the composition as a whole.

Initially trained in Vic, Fidel Bofill cultivated an Impressionist-rooted landscape style in his early years before turning to Informalism and abstraction during his time in Barcelona, where he was associated with the Reial Cercle Artístic. His work is represented in the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, which hold one of the artist’s landscapes, and in 2016, the Museu de l’Art de la Pell in Vic dedicated the retrospective exhibition *Bofill-Antològica* to him.