Apel·les Fenosa

Apel·les Fenosa (Barcelona, 1899 – Paris, 1988) began his drawing studies at a municipal school in Barcelona and, at the age of fifteen, entered the studio of the sculptor Enric Casanovas. Determined to move beyond the ideas of Noucentisme, he joined the group known as the Evolutionists in 1919, where he was particularly close to the sculptor Josep Granyer. In 1921 he settled in Paris, where he came into contact with Picasso and the avant-garde circles. In 1924 he exhibited at the Galerie Percier together with Pere Pruna, with a catalogue prefaced by Max Jacob, and in 1928 at Galerie Zborowski. A contributor to Favorables París Poema, he was a friend of Supervielle and other writers. He alternated exhibitions in Paris with exhibitions in Barcelona, where he took part in the Saló dels Evolucionistes and the Autumn Salon. Between 1929 and 1939 he lived in Catalonia and belonged to the circle of Joan Rebull. During the 1930s he held several solo exhibitions at the Sala Parés in Barcelona (1930, 1932 and 1933). He took part in the collective exhibition Les Arts i els Artistes, with which he exhibited on other occasions. In 1934 he was a member of the Organising Committee of the Salón de Montjuïc, and in 1936 he was included in the Venice Biennale. That same year he took part in the Paris exhibition organised by the SAI, the Sociedad de Artistas Ibéricos. After the Spanish Civil War, during which he participated in efforts to safeguard Catalan artistic heritage, he settled once again in Paris in 1939. His work forms part of the processes of renewal and avant-garde experimentation in Catalan sculpture, moving beyond the assumptions of Noucentisme and, later, Cubism, although without forgetting these origins in small sculptures in bronze and terracotta, which he imbued with a distinctive lyricism.