Albert Ràfols-Casamada. Pintura

Albert Ràfols-Casamada (Barcelona, ​​1923-2009). One man to explain the tragedy of 20th-century Catalan art. And an exhibition to illustrate it. The title is 'Painting', which says a lot more than it would seem. Yes, there are some 40 large works, most of them painted between 1987 and 1997 – that is, after the artist had reached legal retirement age.

Ràfols-Casamada was the and grandson of painters, he was married to painter Maria Girona, in 1967 he cofounded the Eina school – a Mediterranean Bauhaus with Montessori flavours – and he was a poet. You could say with no irony at all that Ràfols-Casamada's art is the more-than-perfect incarnation of Catalan Noucentisme in the time of jet planes and coastal traffic james; the most skilled heir of the Torres-Garcias – he even adopted the hyphen between his surnames – who, risking being confused with supporters of colour field painting, was immune to the suicidal tendencies of American abstracts thanks to his Mediterranean joie de vivre.