40 - JOSEP VERDAGUER COMA (Sant Andreu del Palomar, Barcelona, 1923 - 2008).

JOSEP VERDAGUER COMA (Sant Andreu del Palomar, Barcelona, 1923 - 2008). "Pas a nivell-La Mina". Oil on panel. Signed in the lower left area. Signed and titled on the back. Measurements: 52 x 66 cm; 71 x 85 cm (frame). Josep Verdaguer began his training in a secular school in a working class neighborhood; at the age of fifteen he painted his first picture and at seventeen he was already working reproducing works of the great masters of painting. In 1941 he entered the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de Sant Jordi, and later traveled to Madrid, where he admired the work of Ribera, Zurbarán and Zuloaga. Later he would broaden his training in Paris. After finishing his studies he made his debut at the Condal Gallery in Barcelona in 1947. Since then he held exhibitions not only in Catalonia and the rest of Spain, but also in Canada, the United States, Switzerland, Italy, Mexico, Israel, Austria and Sweden, among other countries. In 1956 he began his activity as a muralist, painting murals in the parish church of Sant Andreu del Palomar. In 1973 he received the Gold Medal of the District of Sant Andreu, the same district that dedicated a tribute to him in 1985. In 1987 he illustrated the book of poems "Recull". More recently, in 2001 a new tribute was dedicated to him, promoted by the Grup de Pintors de Sant Andreu and the District Council, with the support of various entities. That same year he was awarded the Gold Medal of Barcelona. Verdaguer is represented in several private collections, and has several murals in churches and public buildings throughout Catalonia.