41 - MARCEL MARTÍ (Alvear, Argentina, 1925 – Peratallada, Girona, 2010).

MARCEL MARTÍ (Alvear, Argentina, 1925 – Peratallada, Girona, 2010). Untitled. Patinated bronze, P.A. Signed and dated “P/A.” Measurements: 28 x 14 x 7.5 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. This sculpture embodies one of the most characteristic aspects of Marcel Martí’s mature artistic language: the transformation of abstraction into an organic, compact, and dynamic form. The piece is constructed through an ascending rhythm of curved, recessed, and protruding surfaces, articulated around a large central void that takes on as much visual significance as the bronze mass itself. Formally, the work relates to the organicist style developed by Martí beginning in the mid-1960s, when he gradually moved away from the more rigid geometry of his earlier work to return to forms linked to nature. During this period, the relationships between concave and convex elements, the interior space, and a marked verticality of an almost totemic nature took on special prominence—features that also characterize some of his monumental sculptures. Marcel Martí was a leading figure in the postwar Catalan sculptural renewal. He began his career as a painter and, from 1953 onward, devoted himself primarily to sculpture, evolving toward abstraction by the end of that decade. He received the Manolo Hugué Prize for sculpture in 1958 and the Julio González Prize in 1960, and created a significant body of monumental work intended for public spaces. His work is held, among other institutions, by the Museo de Arte Público in Madrid, the Fundació Suñol, the Fundació Vila Casas, and the Museu de l’Empordà.