Lluis Claramunt

LLUIS CLARAMUNT (Barcelona, 1951 – Zarautz, Gipuzkoa, 2000).
“Bull in the Pasture, Stabbed, from the Winter Bull series,” 1987.
Oil on paper.
Framed with museum-grade glass.
Provenance: Private collection / Juana de Aizpuru Gallery, Madrid.
Signed and dated.
Measurements: 25 x 30 cm; 38 x 42 cm (frame).
The bull and the world of bullfighting occupied a prominent place in the artist’s work, especially during the 1980s. In this series, the subject transcends the depiction of a bullfighting scene to become a realm of tension, movement, and drama. Claramunt’s painting from this period is characterized by the simplification of forms, rapid and energetic lines, gestural brushstrokes, and a highly intense color palette—techniques that allow him to construct figures based more on emotion than on literal description.
A self-taught painter, draftsman, photographer, and printmaker, Lluís Claramunt spent his life in Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Bilbao, and Marrakesh, and developed a body of work influenced by Isidre Nonell and marked by an expressionism in his early years, which would gradually fade until it evolved into a minimalist calligraphic style. Beginning in the 1970s, he held solo exhibitions at prominent galleries such as the Dau al Set in Barcelona, the Quatre Gats in Palma de Mallorca, the Juana de Aizpuru in Seville, and the Buades in Madrid, and he also participated in ARCO (1984, 1988). He has also held solo exhibitions in New York, Amsterdam, Graz (Austria), and Lisbon. Furthermore, in 2012, his work was featured in the solo exhibition “El viatge vertical,” held at the MACBA in Barcelona. His work is currently represented in the MACBA, the Fundació Vila Casas, the La Caixa Collection, the Álava Museum of Fine Arts, the Madrid Contemporary Art Collection Association, the Higher Sports Council, and the Ministry of Culture in Madrid, as well as the Caja Madrid Collection. Claramunt recently exhibited at the prestigious Marc Domenech Gallery in Barcelona, which dedicated its exhibition “Luis Claramunt: The ’80s” entirely to the artist’s work.