Biografia
Josep Maria Subirachs (Barcelona, 1927-2014) is one of the most important Catalan sculptors, who evolved from expressionism to abstraction, in a process towards a personal style.
At the age of twenty, he worked in the workshop of the Noucentista sculptor Enric Casanovas, whose influence is evident in the artist's early works (although the stylization of those figures already pointed to what would be his expressionist phase). In 1951, the Cercle Maillol of the French Institute awarded him a scholarship to further his studies in Paris. From 1954 to 1956, he lived and worked in Belgium, where he held various exhibitions and participated in the Biennale of Antwerp. At the end of the 1950s, he developed an interest in iron. At the same time, he worked with other materials (bronze, concrete, stoneware, wood) trying to highlight their plastic qualities through a variety of structures, colors, and textures.
Between 1958 and 1960, Subirachs began his significant contribution to public sculpture. In 1958, Forma 212 was installed, the first abstract work placed in a public space in Barcelona. The following year, the relief Les Taules de la Llei (Barcelona, façade of the Faculty of Law), created in collaboration with the ceramist Antoni Cumella, was placed. In 1960, he sparked controversy with another abstract piece located in a public space: Evocació marinera (1958–1960), located on the Passeig de Joan de Borbó in Barcelona. During this same period, he worked on the sanctuary of the Virgen del Camino, inaugurated in 1961 in León, where he created thirteen monumental figures for the façade, four bronze doors, and various interior elements. Simultaneously, Subirachs began the stage that Corredor-Matheos calls Penetrations and Tensions, with wedges and chisels as the most common plastic elements. Representative works of this stage include Creu de Sant Miquel (1962, Montserrat) and monuments dedicated to Narcís Monturiol (1963, Barcelona), the victims of the Vallès floods (1963, Rubí), Pompeu Fabra (1965, Planoles), and the Mexico Olympics (1968, Mexico City), among others.
From 1965, Subirachs opted for a new figurative approach characterized by the introduction of plastic resources such as continuous profiles forming molds, twisted shapes, positive-negative play, and, from the early 1970s, the incorporation of pictorial elements.
In addition to significant international recognition, with numerous exhibitions held and works placed in cities and museums around the world, it is worth noting the presence of his production throughout Catalonia, with countless monumental works: the façade of the new Barcelona City Hall building (1966–1969), the monument to L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (1975), the door of Sant Jordi of the Palace of the Lieutenant (1975, Barcelona), the relief Sant Jordi-Teseu in the loge that joins the Palace of the Generalitat with the House of the Canons (1976, Barcelona), the monument to Ramon Llull (1976, Montserrat), the chapel of the Holy Sacrament (1978, basilica of the Montserrat monastery), the Barcelona relief (1979, Sants station, Barcelona), the monument to the righting of the Generalitat of Catalonia (1982, Cervera), the monument to Francesc Macià (1983, Vilanova i la Geltrú), the monument to Pau Casals (1984, El Vendrell), the monument to Salvador Espriu (1986, Santa Coloma de Farners), the monument to Borrell II (1986, Cardona), the monument to Federico García Lorca (1988, Cadaqués), the monument to the Millennium of Catalonia (1990, Tarragona), and the monument to Francesc Macià (1991, Barcelona).
After dedicating nearly twenty years (1987–2005) to the façade of La Passió (The Passion) of the Sagrada Familia temple in Barcelona, Subirachs considered his sculptural phase completed and entered a new stage in which his medium of expression became painting. A versatile artist, in addition to three-dimensional creation, Subirachs also expressed himself through other techniques, such as drawing, graphic works, book illustrations, and medal engraving.
