27 - MARCEL MARTÍ BADENES (Alvear, Argentina, 1925–Girona, 2010).

MARCEL MARTÍ BADENES (Alvear, Argentina, 1925–Girona, 2010). Untitled, 1986. Patinated bronze, no. 7 of 9. Signed, dated, and numbered. Measurements: 53 x 15 x 10 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. This sculpture belongs to Marcel Martí’s mature period, during which his abstraction took on a distinctly organic and biomorphic character. The piece exhibits a pronounced verticality through the superimposition of curved volumes, concavities, and protrusions that suggest—without fully depicting it—an anthropomorphic presence of an almost totemic nature. The intense green patina accentuates the continuity of the surfaces and gives the bronze an almost stony appearance, underscoring Martí’s relationship with essential forms derived from nature. In contrast to his other works with a more compact structure, an upward impulse predominates here, lending the composition a special monumentality despite its modest scale. Marcel Martí was a leading figure in the postwar Catalan sculptural renewal. From the mid-1950s onward, he focused his work on sculpture and evolved toward abstraction, later developing a language of organic forms with a strong volumetric presence. He received the Manolo Hugué Prize in 1958 and the Julio González Prize in 1960, and created numerous monumental works for public spaces. His body of work is represented, among other institutions, at the Museo de Arte Público in Madrid and the Fundació Vila Casas.