Manel Capdevila

MANEL CAPDEVILA MASSANA (Barcelona, 1910 - 2006).
"Bullfight".
Oil on canvas.
Signed on the back.
It presents slight loss of polychrome in the right margin.
Measurements: 46,5 x 38 cm; 63 x 55 cm (frame).
Painter and goldsmith, son and father of goldsmiths, Manel Capdevila begins his formation in 1925, in his father's workshop. At the same time he attended the classes of Francesc d'Assís Galí and Feliu Elias at the Ateneo Polytechnicum. A year later he travels for the first time to Paris, where he comes into contact with the avant-garde. He visits different museums in the city, and is strongly impressed by the Fauvist painting of Vlaminck and Rouault, which definitively reveals in him the pictorial vocation. On his return to Barcelona he continued his work as a jeweler, combining it with his passion for painting. He joins the FAD (Fomento de las Artes Decorativas) in 1926, becoming an active member. Between 1933 and 1936 he exhibits his first paintings at the Salón de Montjuic, and in 1934 he makes his individual debut at the Syra Gallery in Barcelona. During the Civil War he resides in Paris, where he manages to exhibit his paintings at the Kleiman gallery in 1936 and 1938. He returns to Spain in 1939, and in 1947 he becomes a founding member of the Salón de Octubre in Barcelona, participating in all editions from then until 1957. Also, between 1949 and 1950 he was a member of the Lais Group. In 1950 he is invited to the competition "The 1950 Pittsburgh International" at the Carnegie Institute (USA), where he presents the painting "The Priest". A year later the Museum of Modern Art of Panama acquires his work "Chrysanthemums". Dedicated since the seventies to painting exclusively, he continues to make himself known through group and solo exhibitions, held in Barcelona and Madrid as well as in Paris. In 1986 he received the Cross of Sant Jordi, and in 1993 the Generalitat together with the Sala Parés dedicated to him an anthological exhibition of painting and jewelry at the Palau Moja. The following year he was elected honorary academician of Sant Jordi, and in 1999 he was awarded the Gold Medal for Artistic Merit by the City Council of Barcelona. In 2000 the Museum of Montserrat dedicated a tribute exhibition to him, "Manuel Capdevila pintor-orfebre", and in 2006 he presented his last exhibition, "Transfiguracions", at the Sala Parés. He is currently represented in the Museum of Montserrat, the National Museum of Art of Catalonia, the National Museum of Modern Art of Panama and in important private collections.