Josep Clarà

JOSEP CLARÀ I AYATS (Olot, Girona, 1878 - Barcelona, 1958).
"Female nude".
Terracotta sculpture.
Signed.
Measurements: 21 x 19 x 15 cm.

Josep Clarà begins his formation in the School of Drawing of Olot, with Josep Berga i Boix, and later he will study sculpture in the School of Fine Arts of Toulouse, France. After finishing his studies, he went to Paris in 1890, where he worked in the workshop of Louis Barrias and met Maillol, Bourdelle and Rodin. In fact, the advice of the latter helped him to overcome the modernist influences of his early works. In 1907 he presented at the Salon des Artistes Français the work "Torment", a work that denotes a Rodinian influence that in his marble "Twilight" (1913, Museo de Santiago de Chile), whose plaster model he presented at the Salon de la Société Nationale in 1908, is diluted in favor of a greater clarity and serenity. The following year he presented what would be the first of his goddesses, a work that finally represented the definitive official recognition of his talent. A tireless worker, he received several commissions for monuments, such as "Serenity over the ruins of life" (San Isidro cemetery, Madrid) and "Monument to the Catalan volunteers" (Ciutadella Park, Barcelona). With the model of the latter he won the grand prize in Paris in 1925. At the end of that same year he was appointed member of the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. Clarà also made heads and portraits, where he showed a condensed and lively language. In 1928 he created "Reposo" (MACBA), which earned him the medal of honor at the International Exhibition of Barcelona (1929), and in 1934 he won the Damià Campeny prize. In 1936 he created one of his best works, for the synthesis of simplicity, light and serenity: "Pujanza". He is also the author of the "Monumento a los caídos" (1952) in Barcelona.) With the nude "Pomona" (Museum of Havana) he won the grand prize at the 1954 Hispano-American Biennial. In 1946 he made a "San Benito" (Montserrat) that oriented him towards the study of the seated figure. Thus, his last works will be mainly seated maternities and lying figures. In 1969 was inaugurated in Barcelona the museum that bears his name, where a large part of his work is preserved. It is also present in the Regional Museum of the Garrotxa in Olot and in the National Museum of Art of Catalonia, among others.