Joan Brossa

JOAN BROSSA CUERVO (Barcelona, 1919 - 1998).
"Spain".1971.
Collage-lithograph, copy 19/100.
Signed and justified in pencil.
Size: 38 x 56 cm; 41 x 59 cm (frame).
Brossa was a poet for whom there were no distinctions of genre (literary, scenic, visual, objectual...), who began writing during the Civil War. He was a co-founder of "Dau al Set" together with Ponç, Tàpies, Ciuxart and Tharrats, and throughout his career he received the Lletra d'Or, City of Barcelona, UNESCO Picasso Medal, the National Plastic Arts Award, the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts and the National Theatre Award from the Generalitat. In 1943 he began to work with object poems, which began to be exhibited publicly from 1956 onwards, often in collaboration with painters such as Miró, Tàpies and Ponç. It was from 1960 onwards that his plastic work reached its peak, both in number and depth. In that year he produced the visual poem Cerilla and in 1965 the artist's book Novel-la (the latter in collaboration with Antoni Tàpies), both considered masterpieces of universal conceptual art. The Brossian object evolved towards the installation, often large-format and often ephemeral. In this respect, the intervention in all the exhibition spaces of the Palau de la Virreina in Barcelona in 1994 stands out. Over time, Brossa's plastic work reached its civic dimension: his corporeal visual poems were installed in public spaces as passable poems that were integrated into the everyday reality of Barcelona. Later, these corporeal poems would reach many places in Catalonia and also the Balearic Islands, Andorra, Germany and Cuba.