Galeria Marc Domènech

Alfons Borrell (Barcelona, 1931 – Sabadell, 2020) he learned under Anglada Camarasa at an early stage and also at the Barcelona ‘Escola de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi’. He started as a figurative painter in the 1950s. Later, he moved towards abstract expressionism. In the 1970, though, with a clear intention of moving away from informalism, he developed a very personal pictorial style characterized by the use of monochrome paintings in which colour becomes more important that form with compositions that are both rigorous and lyric.

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Ana Peters (Bremen, 1932 – Dénia, 2012) was born in Germany in 1932, the daughter of a ship consignee. As a child she knew she wanted to be a painter and admired the works of Caspar David Friedrich and later those of Emil Nolde and Paula Modersohn-Becker. 

In 1942, in the midst of World War II, the family moved to Spain where Peters received her artistic training at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Valencia -between 1953 and 1955- and later at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, where she met Lucio Muñoz and Alfonso Fraile. In 1964 she married the art historian and critic Tomàs Llorens, theorist of Equipo Crónica (Rafael Solbes and Manolo Valdés).

Antoni Tàpies i Puig, (Barcelona, 1923 - 2012) a leading Spanish painter and sculptor of the 20th century, was a world exponent of informalism. His own style combined tradition and innovation in abstract works full of symbolism. His work reflects a deep analysis of the human condition, exhibited in the most important museums and galleries internationally.

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Enric Planasdurà (Barcelona, 1921–1984) he was mostly a self-taught artist. In the early 40s his work is clearly influenced by the post impressionists and his colourful figurative paintings focus mainly on landscapes and still lifes. He soon moved into abstraction by the end of the 40s after an intense and short period in which he was strongly influenced by surrealism. In 1949 he exhibits at the famous Galeries Layetanas (Barcelona) and becomes a member of the ‘Grup Lais’. His early geometric works were expressive and colourful but by the mid 50s they became pure and ordered. In the 1960s he was seduced by informalism, although, instead of developing a very gestural style, as most of his colleagues did at that time, he adopted a more geometric approach. His later work returns to the pure geometric abstraction that gave him recognition in the 1950s.

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Erwin Bechtold (Cologne, Germany, 1925 - Ibiza, 2022) after finishing his printing studies in 1949 he decided to concentrate in painting as well as in interior design. Moved to Paris in the 50 but decided to life in the island of Ibiza, a place that by the end of the 50s was full of artists and intellectuals. In the 1960s after an initial period in which he used organic forms, he moved into geometric abstraction. His works are characterized by the use of mostly monochrome colour fields in which he incorporated geometric forms often balanced by areas of gestural strokes. In the 80s he started working in a series of work that explored the relation between angles, surface and space. An investigation that lasted until the end of his life. His work forms part of numerous renowned private and public collections like IVAM (Valencia), MNACRS (Madrid), MACBA (Barcelona), Guggenheim (New York), Ludwig (Cologne) or Tate Modern (London).

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Georges Noël (Béziers, France, 1924 - Paris, 2010) he studied painting and engineering and worked as a designer at Turbomeca, an aeronautic company. In 1956 he moved to Paris where he decided to dedicate himself fully to painting. Dubuffet, Klee, Pollock and Fontana were some of his initial influences. Noël, by the end of the 50s and early 60s, was one of the most important representatives of French Informel. For his impasto, material painting he used powdery pigments, sand and glue polyvinylacetat and spread the mixture on the canvas. In a gestural-automatic manner, Noël scratched scriptural elements or symbolic signs into the partly soft, partly hardened layer of paint and thus developed the pictures he called palimpsest. With this term, Noël refers to the beginning of writing in early cultures in stone and clay tablets, the erasing and re-engraving of writing elements. His vocabulary of signs shows his interest in the magic, symbolism and mystery of prehistoric, Mycenaean-Archaic and indigenous cultures. In 1968, Noël moved to New York and his painting became more structured and geometric. When he returned to Paris in 1983, he went back to his style of the 1960s but incorporating somehow the constructive order that characterized his American period. He has worked for many important commercial galleries, like Paul Facchetti, Thessa Herold, Catherine Putman in Paris, or Pace Gallery and Arnold Herstand Gallery in New York. In 2023, his work was exhibited at the Parisian Galerie Christophe Gaillard and at the permanent collection of the Georges Pompidou Museum (Paris).

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Hernández Pijuan (Barcelona, 1931-2005) has been one of the most internationally renowned Catalan artists. He has taken part in exhibitions at prestigious international art centers and has also received several awards, as for example the Premio Nacional de Arte Gráfico, in recognition for his trajectory (2005), the Premi Ciutat de Barcelona of Plastic Arts (2004) and the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas (1981). Among his most outstanding exhibitions it could be pointed out his participation at the 51st Venice Biennale (2005); Tornant a un lloc conegut… Hernández Pijuan 1972-2002, at the MACBA, Barcelona (2003), travelling exhibition at the Musée d’art et d’histoire de Neuchâtel, the Konstshalle Malmö and the Galleria d’Arte Moderna de Bologna; Hernández Pijuan-drawings 1972-1999, at the Rupertinum Museum in Salzburg (2000) and Espacios de silencio 1972-1992 at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (1993), that was also exhibited at the Museo de Monterrey, México. Recently his work has been shown at a retrospective exhibitions at Altana Kulturstiftung in Bad Homburg, Germany (2011), the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2012), MUA Alicante (2019); and group shows at the Patio Herreriano, Valladolid, MNAC Barcelona, Caixaforum Barcelona and Madrid, IVAM Valencia, among others.  

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Joan Claret i Corominas (Barcelona, 1929-2014) he started studying architecture and philosophy both in Barcelona and Paris. When started painting at the end of the 1950s and beginning of the 60s he decided to move away from the generalized informalist style that was preeminent in Spain. Instead, he decided to cultivate a style with a strong constructivist language which gave him a quick recognition within the community of post war avantgarde Catalan artists. He exhibited in many group and solo shows in Europe and America.

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Joaquim Chancho (Riudoms, Tarragona, 1943) studied up to 1967 at the Escola Superior of Belles Arts Sant Jordi (Fine arts School) of Barcelona. Nominated for the "Premio a la Pintura Joven" (Young Painters’ Prize), offered by the Sala Parés in Barcelona. Architectural landscapes and arboreal themes; constructive elements with dense, pigmented brushstrokes. 1970 Spent a period in Paris with a scholarship from the Castellblanch Art Foundation of Barcelona. First pictorial representations  based on the interpolation of the gesture in geometry. Opened a study in Barcelona, near the Santa Caterina Market. 1973 Received a scholarship from the Juan March Foundation in Madrid. Publication of the book A, by the Industrial Engineering School of Barcelona. Series of linear transformations based upon successive sequences or cyclical series of images. Sign and calligraphic elements.

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José María Sicilia (Madrid, 1954) lives and works in Madrid. He has recently exhibited in Museo Casa de la Moneda and Calcografía Nacional, Madrid (2017); Musée Delacroix, Paris (2015), Palacete del Embarcadero, Santander (2014); Matadero, Madrid and Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art (2013); Hospital de la Caridad, Sevilla (2012); Maison Erasme, Brussels and Amos Anderson Art Museum of Helsinki (2010); Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum (2008). His work is present in important public and private collections, among which stand: Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; MOMA, New York; Fundació ‘la Caixa’, Barcelona; Colección Banco de España, Madrid; Collection Ville de Paris; MACBA, Barcelona; Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Torino; MNCARS, Madrid; Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Japan; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The New York Public Library, New York.

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Miquel Rué (Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, 1929 – París, 1967) he studied at the school of fine arts and at the studio of Jaume Muxart, a well-known Catalan artist. Between 1948 and 1950 he exhibited his figurative works in his natal city of Sant Boi. In 1951 he meets the sculptor Moisès Villèlia in Melilla while doing the compulsory military service. By the mid 50s he exhibited at the museums in Granollers and Mataró. These exhibitions gave him a lot of visibility and recognition. In 1958 he settled in Paris with his wife Maria Calero and started exhibiting in art galleries. His work initially showed the influence of Nicolas de Stael and other French abstract artists with a tendency towards geometry. In the 1960s his style becomes gestural and close to the ‘nuagist’ style. His monochrome works of the early 60 become rather volcanic and tectonic with intense colors by the mid 60s. Before he died at the early age of 37 years old, his work was close to that of Henri Michaux, an artist he admired. Rué’s work has recently been revisited after having been forgotten for almost 50 years.

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Pic Adrian (Moineşti, Romania, 1910 - Barcelona, 2008) was born in Monesti, Romania, in 1910 but moved to Bucharest with his family in 1915. After school he started Law studies and began writing poetry. Published his first book (‘Jocuri de lumini’) in 1927. He lived in Israel and in Paris in the 1950s. In the French capital he met with Brancusi, Chagall, Léger Jean Arp and the composer and cello player, Pau Casals. Thanks to the latter he moved to Barcelona in 1955 where he started his career as a painter. His works are characterized by the combination of organic and biomorphic elements with geometric forms creating a very particular style which differed from the type of painting that was produced at the time in Catalonia and Spain. He celebrated his first exhibition in Barcelona in 1962. In his later work, organic forms tend to disappear in favour of colour and geometry.

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Sergi Aguilar (Barcelona, 1946) studied in the early 60s at ‘La Massana’ school and at the ‘Conservatori de les Artes del Llibre’, both in Barcelona. He became very interested with the sculpture of Julio González, Brancusi and Jorge Oteiza. He enhanced his learning spending periods of time in Paris, London and Stuttgart. His works are mainly characterized by the use of abstract volumes that are drawn from nature’s direct observation which evolve into a style close to minimalism. His metal constructions have a strong geometric discourse which is enhanced by the use of dimensions, ramps and angles that incorporate and idea of mobility. His works has been exhibited in many museums and galleries worldwide. For many years he has combined his artistic activities with teaching at art schools like ‘Eina’ or Barcelona University’s Fine Art Faculty.

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Setxu Xirau Roig (Canet de Mar, 1968) trained in painting, has a degree in sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Arts Sant Jordi of the UB, University of Barcelona. He received a scholarship at the ENSB-A, Ecole Supérieur des Beaux-Arts de Paris, and worked in the workshop of Christian Boltanski. After a brief stay in the French capital, he returns to Barcelona, abandons his artistic activity and takes a master's degree in video and professional television production at the UPC, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Polytechnic University of Catalonia. He works in advertising, cinema and finally in television, in the artistic services of TV3. Televisió de Catalunya, in the department of space design and ambience. Twenty years later he leaves the audiovisual field and resumes his artistic activity, with a production that shows his experience in the world of design, scenography, visual communication and image. Concerned about everything that surrounds what is defined under the concept "Humanimal", which questions the relationship and limits between man and the rest of the animal kingdom, his most recent work is based on the gaze as an awareness of one's own identity and aims, ultimately, to question the artist-gallery/museum-spectator relationship, as basic axes of contemporary culture.

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Teo Soriano (Mérida, Badajoz, 1963) lives and works in La Coruña. He studied art at the university of Salamanca and Pontevedra. He also took courses with Lucio Muñoz, Rafael Canogar and Eva Lootz. His first exhibition was organized in 1985 in La Coruña and since then his work has been exhibited in many Sapnish arty galleries and cultural institutions. His work is characterized by the use of mainly monochrome works in which he applies thick layers of paint in many different supports. He also decided to extend painting beyond the limits of orthodoxy by often breaking the painting’s stretcher. Mixed media collage and assemblage allowed him to break those limits. Metal, wood, canvas and found objects are commonly used in many of his works. A very recent accident with serious cerebral injuries has forced him to stop his artistic activity for the time being.

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Vicenç Viaplana (Granollers, 1955) the first works of the artist (Informe sobre el desfici, 1973) appear in the outcome of the first conceptual manifestations of the seventies in the active creative environment that Alexandre Cirici Pellicer, in an article in Serra d'Or, named Meridià de Granollers. The exhibition at Galeria Ciento (Barcelona), in 1975, or the installation Vides provocades, in the legendary Gallery G (Barcelona), in 1976 outlined the fundamental features of the work of Viaplana, which will be consolidated through exhibitions such as the ones at Metrònom (Barcelona), in 1987, Bruno Facchetti Gallery (New York), in 1989 or Fernando Alcolea, (New York and Barcelona), in the years 1989 and 1991. He has also exhibited, amongst  others, at the Antonio de Barnola Gallery (Barcelona) in 1997 and at the Carles Taché Gallery (Barcelona) in the years 2001, 2003, 2005, 2011 and 2013. Significant are also the collaborations with Carles Hac Mor in the video D’on ve tot, done in 2011, and in the book Fracassart de la no-mort de l’art, published in 2015.

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Xavier Escribà (París, 1969) studied art in Barcelona (Sant Jordi Fine Arts College, University of Barcelona) and later in Paris (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris). He lived in Paris for over ten years and started his career there. His pictorial development, described as “imaginative and original” by critic Maria-Luïsa Borràs, might be described as a continuation of the French Support-Surface movement. Since 2000, he has exhibited regularly in France and Spain and is present on the international scene at fairs such as Fiac, Arco, The Armory Show, ArtBasel, ArtCologne, etc. He lives and works in Catalonia.

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