Ever since my father accidentally discovered the work of brothers Josep and Pere Santilari in a framer’s workshop in Barcelona, we have always walked together. For more than three decades, these extraordinary artists have offered a wide variety of exhibitions at our gallery as well as at the galleries of some of our colleagues abroad – Caylus in Madrid, Eric Coatalem in Paris, Cuéllar Nathan in Zurich and Jill Newhouse in New York – and at such fairs as TEFAF Maastricht, Highlights in Munich and the Salon du Dessin in Paris. The virtuoso quality of the compositions in their paintings and drawings, especially in their still lifes and vanitas, has been
greeted with awe by the public.
This book provides a graphic insight into their work and preserves it. With his inspiring essay, Timothy J. Standring, Gates Family Foundation Curator at the Denver Art Museum and a renowned specialist, has helped us understand the unique way in which these twin artists capture the beauty of this world in duplicate. I would like to thank him for his effort to make the invisible visible and to bring the reader close to the wonderful world of the Santilari brothers, where reality crystalizes in subtle, delicate, eternal works of art.
