Joan Bennàssar

JOAN BENNÀSSAR (Pollença, Mallorca, 1950).
Untitled, 1984.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 92 x 72 cm; 93 x 73 cm (frame).

Bennàssar began to draw when he was eleven years old, thanks to the encouragement of his parents and the painters Mateu Llobera and Simeó Cerdà. Already in 1968 he participates in the VII International Painting Contest, held in Pollença, and makes his first illustration work, the cover of the book "Lazos rasgados", by Antoni Capllonch. The following year he moved to Barcelona and entered the School of Fine Arts of Sant Jordi, where he continued his studies. In 1971 he travels to England for the first time, and in 1972 he begins an active militancy in radical organizations of opposition to Franco's regime, which will lead him to be expelled from the School of Fine Arts in 1973. In 1976 he began to abandon political activity and was forced to resume his artistic practice, which he had practically put aside. That same year he wins the first prize at the Salón de Otoño de Palma, which motivates him to devote himself exclusively to painting. In 1977 he is amnestied and returns to Barcelona to finish his studies, and the following year he wins the first prize in the XVII Certamen de Pintura de Pollença. Settled again in his native town, from 1979 he worked as a drawing teacher, and that same year he was awarded a prize by the Ateneo de Mahón. In the early eighties, after visiting Paris and Amsterdam, Bennàssar moved back to Barcelona, while he continued to receive awards in Mallorcan competitions. In 1984 he holds an important exhibition at the Parisian gallery Etienne de Causans, and the following year he travels to New York and Mexico City, in addition to making two series of engravings with J.J. Torralba. He continues to work in various fields, holding important exhibitions, as well as carrying out important commissions such as the sculptures he made in 1991 for the Barcelona City Hall and the Merigna Auditorium in Bordeaux. In 1999 he was appointed academician by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Sebastián, in Mallorca, and the City Council of Palma acquired one of his works for the project Public Sculpture Universiada'99, which will later be located in the park of Sa Feixina. Throughout his career, Bennàssar has shown his work in prominent galleries in Spain, the United States, Germany, France, Mexico, England, Italy and Costa Rica. He is currently represented in several museums, and has several public sculptures in the streets of Barcelona and Mallorca.