Marti, Joan (Petronius) - 1 Original colour drawing - Romántica - 1973

Magnificent charcoal drawing!
He was born in Barcelona in 1936, in the midst of the Civil War. In 1950, at thirteen, he began working as an apprentice in the studio of painter Nolasc Valls i Martí. In 1953 he was admitted to the Sant Jordi School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, where he received drawing and painting lessons from the aforementioned Nolasc Valls and from Ernesto Santasusagna and Antonio García Morales. In 1960, upon completing his studies, he obtained a scholarship that allowed him to travel to Italy and America. In Italy he visited the country’s most artistically traditional cities and later spent some time in Paris, where he became acquainted with its museums and came into contact with other painters. In 1961 he lived for six months in the Swiss city of St. Gallen.
Upon his return he joined the artistic representation agency Selecciones Ilustradas, which offered the work of Spanish illustrators and comic artists in foreign markets. Through this agency he produced war comics and for romantic magazines in the British market, such as Roxy, Valentine, or Marilyn. For these he drew a series of portraits of pop stars of the time, such as Paul Anka, Cliff Richard, or Tommy Steele. In the following years he also drew illustrations for women’s magazines and covers of romantic novels.
He held his first solo exhibition in 1959, at the age of just 21, at the now-defunct Atena gallery and six years later, after a period of reflection on his style, he carried out a second one at the Jaimes Gallery in Barcelona, which proved to be a great success.
In the following years he balanced his work as an illustrator with artistic painting, but from the mid-70s he devoted himself full-time to the latter.
In 1986 he produced some studies from life of Plácido Domingo and Katia Riccarelli in the Cinecittà film studios in Rome, during the filming of Otelo and with the permission of its director, Franco Zeffirelli. From these studies sprang 25 works that led to an itinerant exhibition that toured various countries in 1992. He also painted a large portrait of Plácido Domingo that the tenor kept in his New York residence.
In 1990 he sketched a regatta in which King Juan Carlos I participated in Mallorca, from which 22 works arose that were exhibited at the Real Club Náutico de Barcelona in 1991 and in December of that year at the Barcelona Nautical Show, with the king himself in attendance.
In 1992 he painted a large painting with the lineup of FC Barcelona for that season, which is kept at the club’s headquarters.
In 1997 there was an exhibition at Galería Anquin’s in Reus, presented by Baltasar Porcel.
His style is defined as figurative, with a preference for the human figure, everyday scenes, and landscapes both natural and urban. He mastered both oil painting and pastel or charcoal. Throughout his career he portrayed numerous famous people, such as the President of the Generalitat of Catalonia Jordi Pujol and his wife Marta Ferrusola, Ladislao Kubala, Xavier Cugat, Frederic Mompou, or the writer Josep Pla, who said that his painting possessed a “practical, almost magical realism, extremely intelligent and pleasant.” The writer Francisco Candel, for his part, defined his palette as “rich in themes and tones, and his polychromy well cared for, without harshness but with precision.”
He passed away in Sant Cugat del Vallès in February 2009. In October of that year a commemorative exhibition was held at the Rusiñol room in Sant Cugat del Vallés. He is the father of international golfer Paula Martí.