Josep Santilari

Josep Santilari and Pere Santilari (Barcelona, 1959) – artists represented exclusively by the Artur Ramon Art gallery since 1987 – are an exceptional case of twins who share the same concept of drawing and painting. They are currently two of the main representatives of the new Catalan realism. Their small-format works, made with a unique technique of extreme skill and precision, are often mistaken for photographs. After having studied Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona, they started working together in the same workshop, a fact that had an undeniable influence on their style. It also ensured that their artistic career continued in parallel, even though rarely they work together on the same piece. Santilari’s works are characterised by great meticulousness, a realism connected with contemporaneity but which has its roots and references in classic themes of the art history: landscape, painter and model, still life, vanitas. The Santilari brothers renew these themes by introducing subtle and accurate commentaries on contemporaneity in their works, and they are recognised on the national and international scene as masters of the pencil. They especially make a tribute to the great masters of the history of art representing some iconic artworks and associating them with objects that suddenly bring us into the contemporary world. We see Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Goya and Durer’s drawings, or Rembrandt, Canaletto, Parmigianino and Jacques-Louis David’s paintings associated with flowers, fruit, the artist's tools of the trade, but also with a USB, earphones, an iPhone and a pocket watch. Their tribute to some of the most important artists of the history of art is also a personal vision and commentary on the present world.