Josep Mª Subirachs (1927-2014) - Sin título

Signed in pencil by the artist at the bottom and with edition 1/250

In good condition

Unframed

Dimensions: 58 cm x 49 cm.

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Subirachs Sitjar, José Maria. Barcelona, 11.III.1927 – 7.IV.2014. Sculptor, draftsman and printmaker.

Born into a working-class family, at fifteen he entered as an apprentice in the workshop of sculptor Enrique Monjo. For a time he balanced work with drawing classes at the School of Fine Arts of Barcelona, where he attended as a free student. With Monjo he learned the trade, but the teacher who influenced him most directly was Enrique Casanovas, with whom he could only work for a short period, since the renowned noucentist sculptor died in 1948, a few months after Subirachs joined his workshop as an assistant.

The noucentista Mediterranean influence is evident in his early works, although the stylization of those terracotta figures already pointed toward the expressionist phase that would begin in the 1950s with sculptures such as Europe (1953), Moses (1953), The Woman of Potiphar (1954), Oedipus and Antigone (1955) or The Fates (1956).

In 1951 the French Institute of Barcelona had awarded him a grant to expand his studies in Paris, and in the same year he took part in the First Hispano-American Biennial of Madrid; in 1953 he won the First Prize for Sculpture at the “Salon of Jazz” in Barcelona and participated in the Second Hispano-American Biennial of Havana. The following year he moved to Belgium, where he lived for two years and participated in the Antwerp Biennale. It was from this moment that he became a professional sculptor who saw the possibility of supporting himself with his work.

From expressionism he derived toward an organic abstraction with works such as The Tower of Babel (1955), in a process toward a personal style increasingly distant from figurative references and which, by the end of the 1950s, led him to become interested in iron, but not as a material worked in the manner of forging artisans, rather using industrial techniques such as welding. At the same time he worked with other materials (bronze, concrete, terracotta, stoneware, ceramic, wood), seeking to highlight the plastic qualities of their varied structures, tones, and textures. To achieve balance in some works he incorporated blocks of stone, not as a plinth but as counterweight, or he composed iron-and-wood structures like Tekel (1958), a work that earned the Julio González Sculpture Prize.

Between 1958 and 1960 he began his important contribution in the field of public sculpture, being the first sculptor to place abstract works in public spaces in Barcelona: Forma 212 (1958, Barcelona, Paseo del Valle de Hebrón), Seaside Evocation (1958-1960, Barcelona, Paseo Juan de Borbón), not without provoking controversy due to its modernity. In the same period he worked on the shrine of the Virgin of the Camino, inaugurated in 1961 in León, where he produced the monumental facade figures (the Virgin and the twelve apostles), four bronze doors and various interior elements of the temple: tabernacle, crucifixes, pulpits, candelabras, lamps. This ensemble, which has been considered a milestone in the Spanish artistic renewal of the 20th century, represents a figurative interlude and, at the same time, the culmination of his expressionist phase. Parallelly he began the series that José Corredor-Matheos called the “penetrations and tensions,” with pieces interlocked and iron rods and screws as common plastic elements. Among the monumental works most representative of this stage stands out the Monument to the Mexico Olympics (1968, Mexico City).

From the seventies he opted for a new figuration that led him to openly and manifestly assert the Theme (with a capital T) and he already permanently formed his characteristic iconography, a product of his constant reflections: the relation between man and woman, life and death, the role of man in the world, the role of art throughout history.

From that moment all his work was conditioned by a dialectical duality, by a counterpoint of elements that opposed and complemented each other. The main plastic resources he introduced were running profiles forming friezes with moldings, turned shapes, balustrades, positive-negative play, and even the combination of sculptural and pictorial elements. By the mid-seventies he intensified iconographic references to the Renaissance and Baroque, with tributes or allusions to works by Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, Bernini, Dürer or Rembrandt. In the same period he incorporated classical elements such as capitals, caryatids, niches, balustrades, and mythological connotations.

In 1986 Subirachs received the commission to create the sculptural ensemble of the Passion façade of the Sagrada Familia, the expiatory temple that Gaudí designed and began but left unfinished in Barcelona.

To represent the various scenes of the last days of Jesus Christ the sculptor revived figurative expressionism, with the intention of intensifying the pathos the theme required, but simultaneously, by creating other works beyond that commission, he recovered and adapted the language of abstraction with structures dominated by geometric forms.

Thus, he achieved metaphysical conceived creations, through which he tried to express the tensions of the natural world, fleeing from figuration and turning to a language rich in architectural references.

In addition to his work as a sculptor, Subirachs has been a prolific draftsman and author of graphic works, into which he ventured from 1970, both in the realm of copperplate engraving, especially etching, and in lithography. Many times the drawings are introductory to a theme, i.e., the first version of what will later be a sculpture or relief, while lithographs are usually promotional of a sculptural work multiplying its image with numerous variants.

In addition to Subirachs' prominent presence throughout Catalonia, with countless monumental works loaded with symbolism referring to the history of Catalonia, there is also a notable international projection, with numerous exhibitions held and monumental works in cities and museums around the world.