Matías Palau Ferrer

MATÍAS PALAU FERRER (Montblanch, 1921-2000).
Untitled, 70's.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower margin.
Measurements: 114 x 146 cm; 116 x 148 cm (frame).

It is possible to relate the important painting of Palau Ferré with the most emblematic painting of the painter, the "Guer-blanc" (1971), in which the author established a fruitful dialogue with the Guernica of his admired Picasso, whom he met in Paris. In fact, it could be interpreted as a version of "Guer-blanc", since in both he recovers some iconic elements of Guernica (the horse, the bull, the dove, the window...), but transforms the drama into promise, by sweetening the characters, adding others (the harlequin with a mandolin and the young woman with the flower) and giving the post-Cubist composition a vibrant chromaticism. Palau Ferré reinterprets Picasso's message in favor of freedom, stripping the scene of all all allusions to human suffering and violence. As in "Guer-blanc", he employs his characteristic palette of bright and luminous colors, bringing life, light and warmth, as opposed to the black, white and gray that for Picasso was mourning and death. Instead of the woman carrying a lamp, the girl in the window holds a flower that attracts the dove of peace and, behind her, a bright sun (another iconic motif in Picasso's painting) illuminates the bodies. The sun as the vertebral vertex of the composition is identical to that of the "Guer-blanc", as is the motif of the horse, whose docility recalls the subtle elegance of a gazelle. Likewise, the bull also returns in the present painting, but just as in "Guer-blanc" he was taken by the horns by a man, in our version he has already merged with the man, offering us the magnificent image of a good-natured minotaur. In short, the woman's agonized scream, the agonizing horse and the brutal bull of Guernica have been banished from Palau Ferré's optimistic universe.

He studied at the Real Academia Catalana de Bellas Artes de San Jorge, Barcelona and moved to Paris in 1957 where he was one of Pablo Picasso's disciples. He began with some cubist-inspired works on oil canvases. Over the years he also did some ceramics and some sculptures. After coming to fame in Spain he exhibited in several foreign countries, including France, the UK and the USA. His most important works are Woman and Moon, Montblanch and Guer-Blanc. Palau Ferré achieved notoriety due to his sudden mood swings that led him to burn his oil canvases in 1974 after a dispute he had with a gallery owner. As a protest against what he defined as "art prostitution", he continued to systematically burn all of his oil paintings that came within his reach over a period of about twenty years. He usually scattered the ashes of his paintings ceremonially in the Francolí River in his homeland, but some of the ashes of his canvases were saved and became part of an art exhibition in Pennsylvania, USA.1 His prolonged protest led him to stop painting oil canvases and to prohibit the few that survived from being exhibited until 1989. In his last artistic phase he painted only in India ink on thick paper following a technique of his own invention. He always signed his works with his two surnames "Palau Ferré". Palau Ferré died on January 1, 2000 in Montblanch and the town council named a street after him that same year. Months later, the Palau Ferré Art Museum was inaugurated, where some of his works are exhibited, including some rare canvases that were saved from burning.