153 - JOSEP MARIA SUBIRACHS (Barcelona, 1927–2014).

JOSEP MARIA SUBIRACHS (Barcelona, 1927–2014). “Alexa.” Patinated bronze. Signed and titled on the reverse. Measurements: 16 x 16 x 5 cm. Provenance: Estate of Ramon Martí Alsina and Ricard Martí Aguiló. Artistic and heritage collection originating in the legacy of Catalan painters Ramon Martí Alsina (1826–1894), a seminal figure of 19th-century Catalan Realism, and his son Ricard Martí Aguiló (1857–1935). Passed down and enriched across successive generations, the collection brings together works from the original holdings of both artists alongside acquisitions made by their descendants. Dedicated to preserving and recovering the family legacy, the descendants actively reacquired works by the painters as they entered the market, progressively expanding the collection to encompass paintings, sculptures, archaeological artifacts, and other items of artistic and historical significance. The piece particularly clearly encapsulates one of the core concepts of Subirachs’s mature sculpture: the dialogue between positive and negative, interior and exterior, matter and void. The artist contrasts a rough exterior surface—with vibrant modeling and an almost eroded appearance—with a much more refined interior from which emerges a serene, front-facing female figure. This duality of textures and spaces transforms the very body of the sculpture into a sort of envelope that simultaneously conceals and reveals the figure. The work relates to the new figurative style developed by Subirachs beginning in the mid-1960s, a period in which he reintroduced recognizable references without abandoning his earlier abstract exploration. It was precisely then that he consolidated a language based on systems of opposition—positive and negative, masculine and feminine, space and time, life and death—which would become one of the most personal hallmarks of his work. Josep Maria Subirachs was one of the leading figures in Catalan sculpture during the second half of the 20th century. Trained alongside Enric Casanovas, he evolved from Expressionism toward abstraction and later toward a figurative style with strong symbolic content. Among his major public works are the sculptural ensemble at the Sanctuary of the Virgen del Camino in León, *Evocació marinera* in Barcelona, and, most notably, the Passion Facade of the Sagrada Família, a project to which he devoted nearly two decades. He was a member of the Royal Catalan Academy of Fine Arts of Sant Jordi, received the Cross of Sant Jordi in 1982, and the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts in 1998.