Luis Claramunt (1951-2000) - Claramunt. Galería Dau al Set, abril 1976

Luis Claramunt (Barcelona, 1951 - Zarautz, 2000). Original linocut from 1976, printed in black, which served as the poster for his solo exhibition at the Galeria Dau al Set in Barcelona in April of that year. Signed in pencil “L. Claramunt” at the bottom right and numbered 27/50 at the bottom left.

Technique: linocut, black print from the carved linoleum block, with the irregular edges typical of the carving. Sheet size 76 x 56 cm.

A nighttime city viewed from below: façades with arcades and balconies, twisting towers, a waning moon, and figures hanging from a cornice high above. The white of the paper draws everything that the black leaves free. In the lower half, carved in the block itself, the inscription: “Claramunt / Abril 1976 / Dau al Set / Galeria d'Art / C. Consell de Cent 333”. The three threes of the address came out reversed, like three letter Es, because Claramunt carved them in the linoleum without flipping them.

Claramunt was self-taught. He left Philosophy and Letters studies early, settled in Barcelona’s Plaça Reial and painted the city on the margins, with a debt acknowledged to Isidre Nonell. In 1984 he moved to Madrid and then to Seville, with long stays in Marrakech. He exhibited with Juana de Aizpuru, participated in Art Basel between 1985 and 1989 and in ARCO between 1984 and 2003. The Museum of Contemporary Art of Seville dedicated a show to him in 1986 and MACBA another in 2012. This print is from his early years, when he was still living in Barcelona.

Condition: good. Intense and even black, clean margins. Slight handling marks on the upper margin [VERIFY].

Provenance: private collection, Madrid.