Miquel Torner de Semir (1938) - Amor entre capas

Signed by the artist on the bottom

The work is presented unframed

Dimensions of the piece: 55 cm high x 46 cm wide

Good conservation state

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BIOGRAPHY OF MIQUEL TORNER DE SEMIR.

Miquel Torner de Semir was born in 1938 in the castle of Santa Pau, in Garrotxa (Girona), being the last living person born in this emblematic construction surrounded by volcanoes (he currently lives in San Feliu de Guíxols). This fact marks his vocation as a painter. A man of old Catalonia, cultured, he has always felt drawn to the Middle Ages, the Romanesque of the Pyrenees, and primitive Gothic. The influence of Italian Renaissance art, especially painters of the Italian Quattrocento such as Fra Angélico or Raphael, can be felt in many of Torner de Semir’s female portraits, like the one we have here. It is precisely that blend of antiquity and modernity where the originality of his work lies. What seems to have most shaped him is the knowledge of Romanesque and Gothic art. His figures, often outlined with a thick dark line, evoke Gothic stained glass—luminous, beautiful in themselves. A disciple of muralist and engraver Ricard Marlet, he learns what he considers most important: drawing discipline. Under Maestro Marlet he becomes acquainted with Modernism and the Catalan Noucentisme. He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Sant Jordi in Barcelona and at the San Fernando School in Madrid, where he would visit the Prado Museum and soak up Velázquez’s painting, choosing to reproduce the meninas to his liking, in his own style, with vivid color tones like pink and phosphorescent violet that leave no doubt about the artist’s emphasis, modernity, and charm. Moreover, if you look closely, you can notice his use of collage techniques, embedding bits of fabric, cardboard, or even a musical score.

In Paris, he begins his work as he calls it “between the old and the new.” He began holding solo exhibitions in Terrassa in 1968, later in other Catalan cities and in Paris (Espace and Boutique galleries). His work started in a Mediterranean figuration, evolving into abstraction, then returning to a figurative modern concept. He is considered, ultimately, one of the most important exponents of Mediterranean painting.

All these tendencies were not unknown to him, since in Barcelona he had the chance to meet the Dau al Set group. In the school of Dau al Set he met renown artists such as Tharrats, Muxart, or Tapiés. His painting is characterized by the use of bright, rich colors. His work can be defined in one word: LIFE. Thus, the magnificent work of this Catalan painter is characterized by its rich, cohesive color, vibrant to the point that, together with the diverse materials he uses as support, results in an expressionist painting of high chromatic quality and pronounced personality, defining the artist as a master.

The classical and the new fuse within the brush of Miquel Torner de Semir. Time dissolves, fades away. The dividing line between past and present is erased with his paintings, with his way of tracing on canvas. Miquel achieves what very few have done before: to speak of the past with the voice of the present. His voice: his paintings. His method: passion. His achievement: all his work.

The painter from Girona is influenced by the old masters—Giotto, the Italian Renaissance—and by the informal search of abstract painters. All this is the starting point of his painting; he concerns the craft as much or more than the concept, trying to be a bridge-painter between past and present, but also open to all that is new, to constant exploration. An interesting contrast in Torner de Semir’s work is how he presents people, places, and situations from ancient eras, depicted with modern painting techniques. This distinguished Catalan painter has managed to break with the rules of time. So direct is Miquel Torner de Semir in defining lines and shapes that, at first glance, it seems the work is a two-dimensional canvas, as if the painting were more of a sum of textures from a three-dimensional world.

Some of his works have a distinctive façade-like accent, with an intense expressive color palette, contrasting with the serenity and blank look of the faces, inviting the viewer to delve into the artist’s environment and thoughts. Nevertheless, Torner de Semir has his own style based on the simplicity of execution within a well-structured composition. The female figures have the paused forms of religious art and express the calm of the spirit. The figure serves Semir to reclaim order and the rhythm of human actions.

According to Joan Lluís Montañé, a Barcelonan and member of the International Association of Art Critics, the prestigious Catalan painter Torner de Semir, in his extensive pictorial work, “is interested in composition and color, generators of specially elaborated creations, where the imprint of determination and a contrasted color palette are evident. He exhibits figures, landscapes, and compositions that represent a clear exercise of pictorial academicism in which he does not renounce a certain formal and technical innovation, all within a unmistakable personal plastic seal.”

Art critic Josep M. Cadena says of Semir: “The painter marks with strong and precise lines the silhouettes of the main elements of each composition and uses basic, pure colors to express feelings. When possible he places the painting inside the painting, and even attempts to place abstract interpretations and signs in his backgrounds. Thus he achieves a positive relationship between the different forms of artistic expression that motivate him, and his plastic language is much richer and more attractive. He has a own style based on the simplicity of execution within a very well-structured composition. His female figures have the paused forms of religious art and express the calm that must govern the realizations of the spirit. The figure serves to demand order and rhythm in human actions; his painting is ethical. It communicates positive sensations easily to those who know his work.”

For J. Llop S.: “The drawing, the fundamental, strong, precise, incisive stroke, establishes the form, delimits spaces in the meditated compositions that Torner de Semir presents to us. And then comes seeing differently, the imaginative, dreams that connect with the reality that he describes and clothes with a chromaticism that combines basic colors and soft tones. It is a personal style that discovers the other reality of the landscape, of the figure. An interesting and attractive work that captivates the viewer and leads him along the path of the imaginative.”

Consistent with his primitivist vision, he has not worried much about his social projection toward his teachers; they were sometimes unnamed, and although his works are in many countries, he has exhibited in Europe, America, and Japan, making it difficult to compile an exhaustive résumé. He currently exhibits permanently at La Galería Arcadia in Madrid.

In 2003 he was chosen by the Museo de la Real Casa de la Moneda to have one of his works issued on a postage stamp and to participate in the XXV anniversary of the Spanish Constitution. Meanwhile, the Museo de la Real Casa de la Moneda in Madrid has organized an exhibition of his works.

Torner’s works have been exhibited in a large number of European and Spanish cities such as: Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Strasbourg, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Dijon, Clermont-Ferrand, Barcelona, Girona, Valencia, Seville, Pontevedra, Oviedo, etc. Let us now look at some of the artist’s most significant exhibitions:

Most significant exhibitions
Amics de les Arts. Terrassa - Barcelona.
Pinacoteca. Sabadell - Barcelona.
Société des Artistes Indépendants. Paris.
Grand Palais. Paris.
Dan Art, Béziers-France.
Galerie Espace. Paris - Beaubourg.
Lions Club. Chartres Doyen - France.
Guest of honor at the exhibition of the Cercle Espanyol. Dreux - France.
Salon d’Automne. Clermont-Ferrand - France.
Grand Prix la Femme et l’Immobilière Jeanne Gatineau. Paris.
Sala Gavina. Palamós - Girona.
Sala Clará, Olot-Barcelona.
Espai cultural Francolí-Barcelona.
Galerie Boutique. Paris, France.
La Galerie de l’Hotel Meridien. Paris.
L’Atelier. Platja d’Aro.Girona.
Ausstellungsräume der Mineralquelle Eptigen. Schweiz.
Galería Arcadia- Madrid.
Galería de arte Star. Colectiva.Madrid.
Galería 4 Cantons. Olot.Girona.
Galería Catalonia-Barcelona.
Galería Art 16. Olot.Girona.
Pedreguet Art espai contemporani. Girona.
Galería Da Vinci Art. Girona.
Galerie Ducs de Dijon. Francia.
Galería Campo u Campo. Bélgica.
Galería B.C.S. Estrasburgo.Francia.
Haus Arnold. Frankfurt am Main. Alemania.
Haus Berlinghoff. Heidelberg.Alemania.
Naumilenium. Barcelona.
Lart century art. Barcelona.
Real Club Náutico de Sanxenxo. Pontevedra.
Picassomio.com Madrid.
Galeries d’Art Christian Dazy. Dijon-Megève-France.
Exposición Conmemorativa del 25 Aniversario de la Constitución Española. Madrid.
Sala Constanti Art, Reus. Colectiva de Navidad, 2009-Tarragona.
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