Catalan Painters

Ramon Enrich (Igualada, 1968) is a Catalan painter[1] and sculptor. His artist vocation was influenced by his father, Ramon Enrich, a knitwear manufacturer gifted for self-taught drawing, music and architecture.

He studied Fine Arts in Barcelona, and also History (unfinished) and Graphic Arts. Late 80s, he obtained some scholarships to paint and exhibit abroad. He spent long periods in Mousonturn cultural centre in Frankfurt, and in Berlin. Great admirer of Donald Judd, he moved to the United States in 1988 and he settled down in Marfa, where Judd lived. In the Chinati Foundation and in the Judd Foundation, he exposed works he developed there. Later, he travelled to Los Angeles, where he met Ed Ruscha and worked with David Hockney. Then he settled down in New York, where he worked as an assistant in Julian Schnabel’s studio.

He has exhibited many times in Barcelona, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, New York, Brussels and Paris. Nowadays, he lives and works in Igualada.

Lluís Marsans i Julià (Barcelona, December 31, 1930) is a Catalan painter. He grew up in Paris, and in 1947 traveled to Mexico and the United States. He studied painting in Barcelona in 1948–50. In 1966–70 he explored the world of Marcel Proust's work In Search of Lost Time in a suite of drawings which he exhibited at Trece Gallery in Barcelona in 1972. In 1980 he had a solo exhibition at Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris. In 1985 he was included in the group show Representation Abroad at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.

Marsans has painted many still-lifes and landscapes, usually in small formats and using mixed techniques. In 1985, John Ashbery wrote that Marsans' works "suggest nineteenth-century American trompe-l'oeil painting. Steeped in the light of memory, a Coke can and a Bic lighter become votive objects..." Described as a realist, Marsans says of his relationship to realism: "One cannot paint what one sees.... One can only paint what one remembers.... It is the identification with some realities from the past".

Josep Rovira i Soler (6 February 1900-1998) was a Catalan painter remarkable above all for his ability with portraits.

Biography

His parents were Catalans who traveled to Cuba to help in their family's tobacco business. And he was born in Santiago de Cuba sick of malaria. He had very poor health until he was finally cured in the ship returning to Spain at the age of two.

His family lived in Vilafranca del Penedès some years making a living in the wine business, then they went to Cuba again and lived there for two years. When they returned to Spain he started going to school where he showed he had a gift for painting, though not for academic work.

At the age of 20 he started studying at the painting school La Llotja in Barcelona, and he did for 2 years. One of his school friends who had been studying there for several years decided to quit, downhearted, when he saw the easiness he showed from the first moment.

He won a scholarship to go to Italy and another to study in Madrid.

While painting in Cadaqués when he was 35 years old he met his wife, Mercè Forns Sant Genís, who was 15 years younger than him. She was watching from the balcony and he attracted her attention because he sang while painting. The Spanish Civil War prevented them from getting married and they had a relationship by mail during the four years he stayed in Cuba, till finally when the war ended he returned to Barcelona to get married.

What he most enjoyed was painting portraits. He had a special ability to show the psychology of the character with just some strokes. The rest of his work is set in Catalonia and in Cuba (1936-1939).

Arnau Bassa was a Catalan painter of the 14th century.

He was the son and disciple of painter Ferrer Bassa, with whom he collaborated to numerous works. He introduced in his style influences of the pre-Avignonese school, but later he moved to a more Italianizing Gothic painting, of which he became one of the main exponents in Catalonia., con quien colaboró en numerosos trabajos.

Among his works is documented an altarpiece for the shoemakers guild of Barcelona (11 December 1346), destined to the city's cathedral, later moved to the Basilica of Santa Maria in Manresa. In 1347, together with his father, he executed the retablo of St. James for the Monastery of Jonqueres, now in the Diocesan Museum of Barcelona. He also took part in the retablo of the Royal Palace of La Almudaina in Palma de Mallorca (currently housed in the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisboa), which was later finished by the workshop of Ramón Destorrents, after both Arnau and Ferrer had died of plague in 1348.