Josep Niebla

JOSEP NIEBLA (Tetouan, 1945 – Girona, 2021).
"De primaveres pasadas," 1980.
Acrylic on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner. Signed and titled on the reverse.
Certificate of authenticity signed by the artist himself is included.
Measurements: 100 x 120 cm.

The work dates from a period when Niebla’s abstract language was taking shape, characterized by the prominence of materiality, textures, and a very free conception of color. The composition juxtaposes a large structure of pink and ochre tones—created through glazes, layers, and textural marks—with a vast bluish-gray field from which a floral motif outlined in white emerges. This contrast between a barely hinted-at geometry and organic drawing creates a visual tension that is echoed in the title itself, whose retrospective nature introduces a subtle dimension of nostalgia and memory.

During these years, Niebla moved toward an abstract expressionism in which color and the physical qualities of the surface took on fundamental importance. Here, the delicacy of the floral motif is a hallmark of the work, contrasting with the density and apparent wear of the background, reinforcing the title’s evocation of something once experienced but now absent.

Josep Niebla was trained in Tetuán and continued his studies in Seville, Barcelona, and Paris; from 1962 onward, he developed his career in Catalonia, closely linked to the artistic scene in Girona. He won the Grand Prize at the Barcelona International Biennial in 1975 and subsequently created important murals. His work is part of the collections of the MACBA and the Museu d’Art de Girona, and his career was the subject of retrospectives in Girona in 1992 and at the Museu de Montserrat in 2017.