10 - CARLES PLANELL (Barcelona, 1927–2008).

CARLES PLANELL (Barcelona, 1927–2008). Untitled. Mixed media and acrylic on canvas. Signed in the lower right corner. Dimensions: 73 x 60 cm; 77 x 64 cm (frame). Carles Planell i Viñals was a self-taught Spanish painter and draftsman who began his artistic career around 1948. Associated with the postwar Catalan avant-garde movements, he was a member of the Cercle Maillol and a founder of the Sílex Group (1955), alongside artists such as Eduard Alcoy, Josep Maria Rovira-Brull, and Joan Hernández Pijuan. He also participated in the October Salons and was a founding member of the May Salons in Barcelona. His career garnered early international recognition with the Bronze Medal at the 1955 Alexandria Biennale. In 1959, he was part of the so-called Barcelona School, and in 1960 he participated in the Venice Biennale and in an exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. His work is part of major public collections, including those of the Fundació Vila Casas, the Museu de Granollers, the MACVAC, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid. His artistic language evolved from a figurative style rooted in Picasso toward Informalism and geometric abstraction, incorporating unconventional materials such as metal and marble. He later developed a style of painting characterized by great compositional rigor, inspired by mathematics, proportion, and the studies of Luca Pacioli, and marked by enigmatic spaces and rich symbolism.