Albert Ràfols-Casamada (2 February 1923 – 17 December 2009) was a Spanish painter, poet and art teacher involved in the vanguard movements of his time. He is considered one of the most important, multifaceted Catalan artists of his time.Brief biography of Albert Ràfols-Casamada at the MACBA website His artwork began in the post-expressionist, figurative sphere but soon developed into his own abstract style grounded in a poetic rendering of everyday reality.Biography of Albert Ràfols-Casamada at the website of the Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (Association of Writers in the Catalan Language) – in Catalan.Planas Camps, Ricard. "Ràfols-Casamada, desapareix l'abstracció poètica del blau", Bonart magazine [Girona], No. 123, January 2010, p. 67. ISSN 1885-4389 (in Catalan).
Biography Albert Ràfols-Casamada was born in 1923 in the Barcelonese neighborhood of Gràcia, to the painter Albert Ràfols i Cullerés and to Josefina Casamada i Oliver.Albert Ràfols-Casamada (catalogue to the retrospective at the MACBA and IVAM), Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona / Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia, 2001, Biography by Núria Casellas, p. 183 (in Catalan, with version in English on p. 224. Edition also available in Spanish)."Ràfols-Casamada: Espacios de Luz" in Convocatòria de prensa, Real Casa de la Moneda, Madrid, 3 December 2007, p. 3 (in Spanish).
Ràfols-Casamada began studying architecture at the University of Barcelona (1942–44), but by 1948, he had definitively decided on quitting his architecture studies to take up painting professionally.Albert Ràfols-Casamada (catalogue to the retrospective at the MACBA and IVAM), Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona / Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia, 2001, Biography by Núria Casellas, p. 183 & 185 (in Catalan, with version in English on p. 225. Edition also available in Spanish).
He began exhibiting his artwork in 1946 at the Sala Pictòria in Barcelona, in a group exhibit of the artists' collective Els Vuit ("The Eight", comprising the poet Jordi Sarsanedas, the sculptor Miquel Gusils, the musician Joan Comellas and the painters Joan Palà, Maria Girona, Ricardo Lorenzo, Vicenç Rossell and himself) and he continued to exhibit regularly from then until his death. Indeed, the very following year at the same gallery, he already had his first individual exhibit. He received a scholarship from the French government to study art in Paris in 1950, together with his future wife, the painter Maria Girona, and other Catalan artists such as Josep Guinovart, Antoni Tàpies and Xavier Valls, and spent most of the next 4 years there before returning to Catalonia. He exhibited widely throughout Europe and North and South America. In 2001, his work was the object of a retrospective at the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art and the Valencian Institute of Modern Art,Albert Ràfols-Casamada (catalogue to the retrospective at the MACBA and IVAM), Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona / Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia, 2001 (in Catalan, Spanish and English) and he also received a tribute at the National Museum of Catalan Art in 2009.La Revista, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya , No. 7, December 2009, p. 8 (in Catalan)"Homenaje al pintor Albert Ràfols-Casamada en el MNAC", El País, 22 October 2009 (in Spanish)."Homenatge a Rafols-Casamada al MNAC", article in Artneutre? (in Catalan)
He began writing poetry in 1939,Information on published works by Albert Ràfols-Casamada at the website of the Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (Association of Writers in the Catalan Language) writing in parallel to his art activities, and began publishing in 1972, when the limited-edition volume, Com una capsa, came out.Albert Ràfols-Casamada: Signe d'aire. Obra poètica 1968–1978, Llibres del Mall, Curial, Barcelona, 1976, jacket. In 1976, the anthology Signe d'aire. Obra poètica 1968–1978 came out to great critical acclaim.Albert Ràfols-Casamada (catalogue to the retrospective at the MACBA and IVAM), Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona / Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia, 2001, Biography by Núria Casellas, p. 190 (in Catalan, with version in English on p. 227. Edition also available in Spanish). He continued publishing his poetry until the year 2004, when the last volume, Dimensions del present (2001–2004) (Vic: Eumo / Barcelona: Cafè Central) came out.Information on published works by Albert Ràfols-Casamada at the website of the Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (Association of Writers in the Catalan Language)
In 1952, he married the Catalan painter Maria Girona Benet, whom he had met in 1945 at the Tàrrega Art School (Acadèmia de dibuix Tàrrega) in Barcelona, where he began studying art. In 1967, together with Girona and other Catalan intellectuals, he co-founded the art and design school EINA – in the Bauhaus tradition – in Barcelona, which he directed for 17 years.Albert Ràfols-Casamada (catalogue to the retrospective at the MACBA and IVAM), Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona / Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia, 2001, Biography by Núria Casellas, p. 185-186, in Catalan, Spanish and English.J.F. Yvars and Christian Barranco, "El sencillo entusiasmo del rigor. Maria Girona y Albert Ràfols-Casamada", in Maria Girona y Albert Ràfols-Casamada, afinidades compartidas. Pinturas y Dibujos. Galería I Leonarte, Valencia, 2004, p. 7 & 9 (in Spanish). He also taught art there and in other places.
In December 2015 the family of Albert Ràfols-Casamada and Maria Girona offered as a donation to the Library of Catalonia (BC) the personal fund of the two artists, which includes graphic materials, manuscripts and printed matter. Maria Fuchs Girona, on behalf of her sister Margarita Rosa Fuchs Girona, temporarily deposited the fund in the Library of Catalonia, while the final donation was formalized. Until now, the funds, textual and bibliographic, of the artists were located in different spaces.
Works of art Ràfols-Casamada exhibited worldwide and his works are present in many museums throughout the world, including, among others, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the British Museum in London, the Mie Prefectural Art Museum in Japan, The Meadows Museum in Dallas, Texas, the Museo Rufino Tamayo in Mexico, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Museo de Arte Abstracto in Cuenca, the IVAM in València, the Museu d’Art Contemporani in Eivissa and the Museu de l'Anunciata in Alacant, and in Barcelona, the Fundació Joan Miró, MNAC (part of the Museu d'Art Modern collection) as well as the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA). "Mor el pintor i poeta Albert Ràfols-Casamada", Generalitat de Catalunya Heritage News, 17 December 2009.Albert Ràfols-Casamada , FSMED (Mediterranean Social Forum).
Some of his works in the MACBA collection include: Interior amb figura, oil on canvas, 1951 Blau profund, oil on canvas, 1959 Pintura, paint on linen canvas, 1960 Estampa popular. PIM PAM PUM, woodcut on paper, 1965 Estampa popular. Monumento al diálogo, woodcut on paper, 1966 Construcció, paint on wood and cardboard, 1966 Pintura 2 (Homenatge a Joan Miró), mixed media on canvas, 1971 Vuit vents de Cadaqués (Tramuntana, Gregal, Llevant, Xaloc, Migjorn, Garbí, Ponent, Mestral), etching, 1977 Sota l'enramada (migdia), vinyl paint and charcoal on canvas, 1982 Jardí d'agost, acrylic on canvas, 1982 La Catedral, vinyl paint and charcoal on canvas, 1982 Interiors 5, lithograph, 1982 Interiors 6, lithograph, 1982 Interiors 9, lithograph, 1982 Rosa sostingut, acrylic and charcoal on canvas, 1983 Entre les fulles, acrylic on canvas, 1984 Abril 1, etching, 1985 Abril 3, etching, 1985 Barcelona Triangle, acrylic on canvas, 1987 Crepuscular, acrylic on canvas, 1988 Dins el roig, acrylic on canvas, 1989 Banda groga, acrylic on canvas, 1990 Sageta, acrylic on canvas, 1990 Sense títol. Carpeta XXV Artistes Catalans, Sevilla 92, lithograph, 1992 Untitled, engraving, 1996 Tensió, acrylic on canvas, undated Ganivet i forquilla, oil on canvas, undated
In addition, his work is present in the form of murals in public spaces in Barcelona ("Les quatre estacions" (The Four Seasons, 1982), ceiling of the hall named after the painting and used as the Tourist Information Office in Barcelona City Hall; and two murals for the Palau Sant Jordi sports pavilion, 1992) and Lyon (Untitled, 2000, Forum of the École Normale Supérieure de Lettres et Sciences Humaines),Albert Ràfols-Casamada (catalogue to the retrospective at the MACBA and IVAM), Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona / Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia, 2001, Biography by Núria Casellas, p. 191, 194 & 197 (in Catalan, with version in English on p. 228, 229 & 230. Edition also available in Spanish). "Albert Ràfols-Casamada et écritures d'arbres" , on Arter APC + AIA (in French) as well as in private spaces such as his own home in Barcelona.J.F. Yvars and Christian Barranco, "El sencillo entusiasmo del rigor. Maria Girona y Albert Ràfols-Casamada", in Maria Girona y Albert Ràfols-Casamada, afinidades compartidas. Pinturas y Dibujos. Galería I Leonarte, Valencia, 2004, p. 7 (in Spanish).
He also created several pieces in stained glass, such as the Virgen del Camino Sanctuary in León (1959) and the Benlloc Residence in La Roca del Vallès (1965). The stained glass windows he created for the Piscines Sant Jordi swimming facilities (1966, Barcelona) have not been preserved.Albert Ràfols-Casamada (catalogue to the retrospective at the MACBA and IVAM), Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona / Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia, 2001, Biography by Núria Casellas (in Catalan, with version in English. Edition also available in Spanish).
Publications
As a writer, Albert Ràfols-Casamada was particularly known for his poetry, though he also wrote some of his thoughts on art in art theory pieces and in his diaries. The great majority of his work was written in Catalan, though he did publish a book on painting in Spanish, as well as several articles in Spanish. He published texts and artwork in periodicals such as El País and El Món, and such art and cultural magazines as Ampit, arc-voltaic, Ariel, Artilugi, Cairell, Kalías, Le Hangar Éphémère, Negre+Siena, Oc, Papers impresos, Reduccions and Serra d'Or.Albert Ràfols-Casamada (catalogue to the retrospective at the MACBA and IVAM), Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona / Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia, 2001, Bibliography, p. 199 (in Catalan, edition also available in Spanish).
Poetry Com una capsa, 1972 – limited edition object book"Notes a l'obra poètica d'Albert Ràfols-Casamada" , by Jaume Pont, Cairell, revista de literatura, No. 2, January 1980 (in Catalan) Notes nocturnes / Albert Ràfols Casamada, Edicions 62, Barcelona, 1976 (visual poetry, in Catalan and English, 48 p., illustrations in b/w) Signe d'aire. Obra poètica 1968–1978, Llibres del Mall, Curial, Barcelona, 1976. Territori de temps. Barcelona: Quaderns Crema, 1979. El jardín, Edicions Ponce, Barcelona/Mexico City, 1979. Paranys i raons per atrapar instants. Sabadell: Edicions dels dies, 1981. Episodi. Cuenca: Antojos, 1982 (poems and etchings). Angle de llum. Barcelona: Edicions 62, 1984. Hoste del dia. Barcelona: Columna, 1994 Estrats. Barcelona: Edicions Polígrafa, 1985 (bibliophile edition, 125 copies) Espais de veu. Mahón, Menorca: Druïda, 1987. El color de les pedres. Barcelona: Columna, 1989. El Passeig del poeta: poemes i dibuixos / The Poet's Walk: Poems and Drawings, translation into English by D. Sam Abrams. Barcelona: Edicions Polígrafa, 1991. , Edicions Polígrafa, Barcelona, 1999 (collection of etchings with poetry, bibliophile edition: 440 copies) Espiral del temps. Barcelona: Círculo de Lectores, 2003. Dimensions del present (2001–2004). Vic: Eumo – Cafè Central, 2004.