Ismael Balanyà Moix (1921-2000) - Composición con busto y flores

The artwork is signed at the bottom

The condition of the work is acceptable; only some wrinkle can be seen.

The work is presented framed

Artwork size: 40 x 32 cm.

Frame size: 57 x 50 cm.

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BIOGRAPHY OF THE ARTIST:

Ismael Balanyà i Moix was born into a family of decorative painters and began his training at the drawing school founded by his father in Montblanc. Once this initial training was completed, at barely fourteen, he began to collaborate with his father. With him he decorated a good part of the churches of the Conca de Barberà. After the Civil War he moved to Barcelona, where he enrolled in the Llotja School and later in the Massana School while continuing to work as a decorative painter. In 1945 he decided to seek a more free creative environment than the gray postwar Spain, and after crossing the border into France on foot he obtained the passport of political refugee and was able to settle in Paris for almost three years and attend the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, where he intensely practiced the fresco painting technique.

In 1949 he was back in Barcelona and began to participate fully in the city’s artistic life. Over the following years he took part in various collective competitions and solo exhibitions, such as the one held in 1960 at the Jaimes Gallery on Paseo de Gracia or the 1961 at the Dintel Art Gallery in Santander. In the eighties he would also frequently exhibit at the Jaimes Gallery in Barcelona and in various rooms in Montblanc and Reus. In 1965 he joined as a professor of drawing, painting and mural procedures at the Massana School in Barcelona, where he would work alternating teaching with painting practice until his retirement in 1986.

Ismael Balanyà worked throughout his career in various formats and techniques, oil on canvas, watercolor and gouache, printmaking and others. However, without a doubt the most representative part of his production are the large-format works on wall or on various supports (canvas or wood) affixed to the wall. This section includes the large-scale painting that we now present.

The work is a tourist and cultural panorama of Catalonia, where the author has highlighted, with a colorful and somewhat naïve stroke, traditions such as the castellers and the sardana, emblematic places and tourist attractions such as Poblet Monastery, Montserrat or the Sagrada Família and products as typical as Vilafranca del Penedès cava. The central part of the ensemble, however, is occupied by a large tent and a family that plays and relaxes on the beach. The Mediterranean Sea also occupies the lower part of the entire composition. The painter chose these motifs to protagonize his work because this commission came from the now-defunct El Toro Bravo camping in Viladecans, an emblematic leisure space of the fifties–nineties in Catalonia, which disappeared in 2004 due to the expansion of Prat airport. The painting is formed by four large wooden panels that can be mounted forming a flat surface or at an angle, depending on the space they adapt to.

A good portion of Ismael Balanyà’s canvas works are preserved at the Montblanc Regional Museum and in private Catalan, French and German collections. Many of his monumental works are still preserved in situ, at the Massana School of Barcelona, Poblet Monastery, Poblet Town Hall and various manor houses, companies or hotels.