Josep Busquets

JOSEP BUSQUETS ÓDENA (Fontscaldes, Tarragona, 1914 - Barcelona, 1998).
"Maternity", 1979.
Bas-relief carved in stone. Black veined marble pedestal.
Signed and dated on the lower front part.
It has damage to the base and some stone chips.
Measurements: 45 x 30 x 5 cm (sculpture); 2.5 x 32 x 8 cm (base).

One of his favorite themes of Josep Busquets was the representation of the female figure in the nude of noucentista roots, which we can appreciate in the maternal nude that occupies us. It is a work that manifests an artistic language rooted in the classical world: beauty, proportion, serenity and balance. In this work Busquets also connects with the avant-garde, thanks to a work of purification and formal synthesis that strips the work of any accessory and anecdotal element, looking for the essence, that immutable, which unites the archaic world with the present of the twentieth century.

Josep Busquets Odena began his artistic training at the Escuela del Trabajo de Valls, later passing through the Taller-Escuela de Tarragona, where he had outstanding teachers such as Joan Rebull and Salvador Martorell. He later settled permanently in Barcelona, but always maintained links with the city of Valls, from where he received various sculptural commissions. The Civil War momentarily truncated his career and when it was over, at the age of twenty-six he resumed his career by making religious works for temples that had seen their artistic heritage destroyed. One of his greatest works was the reproduction of the main altarpiece for the parish church of San Juan in Valls, and he also made processional steps for Easter Week. With his marriage in 1942 he settled in Barcelona, where he opened his workshop in the district of Gracia, moving later to the district of Horta, Busquets made several trips to Greece, Italy and Paris, places that were a source of inspiration in his sculptural work, his first exhibition was in the Collective of the Reig Galleries, his first solo exhibition was in 1943 in the Campañá Galleries; He exhibited regularly in the Syra Galleries and the Sala Parés, he also exhibited in the Salón de Arte Los Madrazo and the Galería El Cisne, both in Madrid.