Albert Ráfols Casamada

ALBERT RÀFOLS CASAMADA (Barcelona, 1923 - 2009).
Pencil on paper.
Signed and dated.
Measurements: 48 x 58 cm; 60 x 70 cm.
Painter and graphic artist, Ràfols Casamada enjoys today great international prestige. He began studying architecture, but soon abandoned it to devote himself to the plastic arts. In 1950 he obtained a scholarship to travel to France, and settled in Paris until 1954. There he became acquainted with post-cubist figurative painting, as well as the work of Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Miró, among others. These influences were joined in his painting to that of American abstract expressionism, which was developing at the same time. When he finally returned to Barcelona, he embarked on his own artistic path, with a style characterized by compositional elegance, based on orthogonal structures combined with an emotive and luminous chromaticism. He has received numerous awards, such as the National Plastic Arts Award, the Creu de Sant Jordi and the CEOE Arts Award. He was also named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of France. His work can be found in the most important museums in the world: the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Guggenheim and the MOMA in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in Los Angeles, the Picasso Museum in France, the Georges Pompidou in Paris and the British Museum and the Tate Gallery in London, among many others.