Josep Guinovart

Painter, draftsman and Spanish engraver. He was born in Barcelona and began working as a wall painter. In 1944 he entered the School of Fine Arts at La Lonja in Barcelona. From 1951 onwards he devoted himself fully to painting and created illustrations for the magazine of the Dau al Set group. In 1952 he moved to Paris with a scholarship and, upon his return, founded the Tahüll group in 1955, together with Cuixart, Jordi Muxart, Tàpies and Tharrats. Around 1957 he initiated an informalist and abstract tendency, with a strong material presence both through the incorporation of diverse elements and objects (burned wood, boxes, waste objects) and through the application of techniques such as collage and assemblage. From the 1960s onwards he moved away from informalist poetics and began to create works furrowed with signs and gestures, which contain a strong expressive charge in the stroke and coloring. From the 1970s onwards he systematically employed materials such as sand, earth, clay, straw or fiber cement, in works such as Earth and Stubble (1976) and Stones and Clay (1977), and initiated a series of works in which he addresses social and political concerns: Homage to Picasso (1967) and Homage to Che (1968). In the following decade he began to experiment with the three-dimensional projection of his works, which materialized in the creation of environments or spatial settings such as the one titled Contorn-extorn (1978). Guinovart possesses a very varied artistic production: mural paintings, theatrical sets and scenographies, such as the one created for Blood Wedding by Federico García Lorca, book illustrations, poster design, tapestries and sculptures. From 1976 onwards, he began his activity as an engraver. In 1990 a retrospective of his work was exhibited at the Tecla Sala Cultural Center in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), for which he received the National Prize for Plastic Arts awarded by the Department of Culture of the Generalitat of Catalonia that same year. In July 1994 the Espai Guinovart was inaugurated in Agramunt (Lleida), a museum dedicated to the artist. Guinovart's work has always remained halfway between painting and sculpture through the incorporation of all types of three-dimensional elements. Another constant throughout the years is the presence of political themes, as in the Altarpiece of Jerusalem (2001), and images that evoke the places he has visited or where he has lived.
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Barcelona, 1927 Painter and engraver recognized internationally, Guinovart is one of the most personal voices in the Spanish art scene. Initially linked to the Dau al Set group, and later one of the founders of the Tahull group -together with Jaume Muxart, Antoni Tàpies and Joan Josep Tharrats-, during the early years of his career he creates mural paintings, theatrical decorations, posters and illustrations. Trained at the School of Arts and Crafts at La Llotja, a scholarship from the French Institute allowed him to travel to Paris in 1952, where he encounters original works by Matisse and Cézanne, among others, and movements such as cubism. Starting from an initial figurative stage, Guinovart's work evolves with themes of a social character and with a tendency towards muralism. Abstract currents and informalism open new perspectives in the aesthetics of his painting. In 1957, using other resources such as the incorporation of objects and the free manipulation of matter, Guinovart initiates a series of experiences close to assemblage or collage, based on barrels, burned wood, waste elements, boxes, coverings, etc. Between his plastic expression and his vital environment, constituted by nature, the countryside and the earth, a lively dialogue is generated, manifested through symbols that form part of a subjective poetics. Guinovart has been awarded the National Prize for Plastic Arts by the Spanish government in 1982 and by the Department of Culture of the Generalitat of Catalonia in 1990. This is a selection of the MUSEUMS and PUBLIC COLLECTIONS in which his work is found: - Casa de las Américas, Havana.- Fine Arts Museum of Long Island. New York.- Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona.- Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City.- Open Air Sculpture Museum, Santa Cruz de Tenerife.- Museum of Navarra, Tafalla.- Provincial Museum of Vitoria.- Museum of Solidarity Salvador Allende, Santiago de Chile.- Museum of Contemporary Art of Alexandria.- Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona.- Balaguer Museum, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Barcelona.- Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao.- Guggenheim Museum, New York.- Museum of Lissone, Milan.- Museum of Sant Pol de Mar, Barcelona.- Museum of Marcay, Venezuela.- Museum of Contemporary Art, Caracas.- Carrillo Gil Museum, Mexico.- National Museum Reina Sofía Art Center, Madrid.- Museum of San Telmo, San Sebastián.- Museum of Bocchum, Germany.- "La Caixa" Foundation Collection, Barcelona.- National Heritage Collection, Madrid.- Juan March Foundation Collection, Madrid.- Fons Collection of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Barcelona.- The Chase Manhattan Bank Collection, New York.- Barcelona City Council.- Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Madrid.- Museum of Contemporary Art of Cáceres.- Museum of Contemporary Art Villafamés, Castellón de la Plana.- Eusebio Sempere Museum, Alicante.