Joan Iranzo (1928-2006) - El esplendor de la primavera

Signed by the artist on the bottom part

The work is well framed.

Artwork dimensions: 19 cm high x 34 cm wide

Frame dimensions: 32 cm high x 47 cm wide

Condition: good for the painting

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Artist biography:

Joan Iranzo, born in 1928, is one of the representatives of Horta (Barcelona) outside the neighborhood. Be it in the rest of the city or abroad, this artist has over the years become a cultural ambassador for this old Catalan municipality. And this has been so because Iranzo has painted countless areas and streets of this neighborhood. Many of his paintings are spread across hundreds of homes abroad.

But Juan Iranzo did not paint all the time. It was when he was 55 that he surrendered his soul to the brush. Before that, he had roamed Catalan roads with a concession from a sausage factory. In his work as a driver he had not thought that one day he would dedicate himself to the world of painting. A world that, today, has become a vital necessity. In the early eighties, Juan Iranzo lost his wife and became a widower. The pain led him to seek some distraction. One good day a neighbor told him he was going to an art house to buy a little box of paints. Iranzo did not hesitate and, having never painted before, he joined him to buy another for himself. From that moment, habitual practice and the guidance of a group of friends helped him find his own path in this art.

Without needing to express anything in particular, only his plastic vision of things, Juan Iranzo organized the first exhibitions. His themes are basically landscapes, and to a lesser extent human figures and flowers.

All seasoned from an Impressionist perspective. For this painter, he deeply admires the oils of Van Gogh, Gauguin, Derain, or Matisse. But he is also fascinated by the canvases of classical authors such as Goya or Velázquez or more contemporary painters like Zuloaga, Sorolla, Picasso, or the Catalans Joaquim Mir and Ramon Sanvisents. The latter, a great Catalan painter fully vindicated by Iranzo due to his current neglect.

If most of Juan Iranzo’s paintings are oils, some he has done with other pictorial techniques such as watercolor or pencil drawings. For although this painter spent many years wanting to be a trumpeter without success, he has drawn throughout his life. Even since he was a child.

His painting, presented in several exhibitions in galleries and for several years in the Barcelonian Plaça del Pi—every Saturday—has given him strong satisfaction. “They have given me everything,” Iranzo explains. “Thanks to painting I have been able to meet important artists such as Ramon Sanvisens, Teresa Llàcer, or Antoni Sala Herrero. It was very important for me to be able to talk with them. In addition, painting has allowed me to travel to the United States, Italy, and Germany, places that I have depicted in countless works.”

Thus, with the dedication that gives naturalness to his character, Iranzo has painted almost a painting every day. About five per week and more than 3000 paintings in 15 years. Most of which are dedicated to Horta and its people. For this painter of Horta is in love with the neighborhood where he lives: “I very much like Horta, first of all,” confirms the painter, “because it has very beautiful places to paint. One can go out to Valle Hebrón or to la Clota on painting hunts and, after so many years, still find perfectly good subjects to fill the canvas. It is a very neighborhood neighborhood. When I got married and came to live here, my life changed radically.”

Indeed, Juan Iranzo arrived from his home neighborhood of Gracia in Horta when he was only 28 years old. There he married and considers that in Horta he will die. Because it is a very beautiful place, even to die in. And that is so because, according to this artist, Horta has changed enough. When he arrived, people went to make rice and pass Sunday.

His paintings have brightly captured the streets of this town—such as Aiguafreda, Travi, la Clota, Horta, or Sant Genís dels Agudells—with joy and vital ardor. A few oils that he displays in Plaza Pi every Saturday. This is Iranzo’s way of paying tribute to Horta.

Because Horta welcomed Juan Iranzo many years ago, offered him friends at the Parochial Center and a social life through excursions. And a presidency of the neighborhood association during the transition. For all this and much more, this artist named Juan Iranzo will always be grateful to this Barcelonese neighborhood: Horta.