Josep Guinovart

JOSEP GUINOVART BERTRAN (Barcelona, 1927 - 2007).
Untitled.
Silkscreen on paper, P.A. copy.
Signed and justified in pencil.
Measurements: 74 x 55 cm; 75 x 56 (frame).
Josep Guinovart was formed in the School of Master Painters, in the School of Arts and Trades and in the classes of the FAD. He exhibited individually for the first time in the Syra galleries in Barcelona in 1948. He immediately acquired a solid prestige, collaborated with Dau al Set and participated in the salons of October, Jazz and Eleven. In the fifties, thanks to a scholarship, he lived in Paris, where he became deeply acquainted with the work of Cézanne and Matisse, who, together with Miró and Gaudí, would be his most important influences. In 1955, together with Aleu, Cuixart, Muxart, Mercadé, Tàpies and Tharrats, he formed the Taüll group, which brought together the avant-garde artists of the time. Towards 1957 he began an informalist and abstract tendency, with a strong material presence both by the incorporation of various elements and objects (burnt wood, boxes, waste objects) and by the application of techniques such as collage and assemblage. From the 1960s onwards, he moved away from the informalist poetics and began to create works full of signs and gestures, which contain a strong expressive charge in the lines and colors. During the seventies he systematically used materials such as sand, earth, mud, straw or fiber cement, and in the following decade he focused on experimentation with the three-dimensional projection of his works, which took the form of the creation of environments or spatial environments such as the one entitled Contorn-extorn (1978). He participated in the Biennials of Sao Paulo (1952 and 1957), Alexandria (1955) and Venice (1958, 1962 and 1982), and his awards include the City of Barcelona, the National Plastic Arts and Plastic Arts of the Generalitat. In 1994 the Guinovart Space was inaugurated in Agramunt, Lérida, a private foundation with a permanent exhibition of the artist's work. Interaction with the natural environment, incorporation of organic matter, abstraction and informalism... all this makes up one of the most original artistic personalities of the Spanish avant-garde scene. Although at the beginning Guinovart was inclined towards a social type of figuration, his stay in Paris made him change course, leading him to initiate a frenetic activity that would continue after his return to Spain. Integrated in the late fifties in informalism and always eager to surprise, he experimented with textures, objects and colors to bring realistic impressions to basically abstract compositions. His work is forceful, even aggressive in terms of colors, light and density of matter. He is represented in the Museums of Modern Art in Barcelona, Madrid and Mexico City, the Museum of Outdoor Sculpture in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao, the Museo San Telmo in San Sebastián, the Museo Eusebio Sempere in Alicante, the Museo de Navarra in Tafalla, the Casa de las Américas in Havana, the Bocchum Museum in Germany, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Long Island, New York, and the Museo Patio Herreriano in Valladolid.