53 - Virgili Vallmajó (Olot, 1914 - Toulouse, 1947)

Virgili Vallmajó (Olot, 1914 - Toulouse, 1947) “Composition” Oil on canvas. Signed. 52 x 43 cm. Donated by Joan Artur Roura, Barcelona. Sold to benefit the 'Associació d'Amics de la Bressola'. In his short but fruitful thirty three years of life, the artist Virgili Vallmajó undoubtedly led a frenetic existence, producing an enviable body of work driven by experimentation and influenced by the early avant garde movements that flourished during his youth. His life was profoundly affected by the historical and political circumstances of his time, which forced him into exile because of his republican convictions and compelled him to relocate several times. It was also marked by fragile health and tuberculosis, a devastating consequence of the wartime context that ultimately claimed his life at an early age. As the Spanish Royal Academy of History explains, this self taught painter from Olot “settled very early in Barcelona, one of the most important artistic centres on the Iberian Peninsula, where he encountered first hand the trends in Catalan and European art that had been developing alongside the early avant garde movements, (Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism...)”. Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Vallmajó “carried out propaganda work for the Republican cause, joined the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI), and took part in the Aragon front” in 1937, until he was left with no choice but to flee into exile in France in February 1939. After escaping from the Argelès sur Mer internment camp, he settled in Paris. According to the RAH, 'one of the major milestones of his artistic career took place there: his relationship with Picasso and his studio, a period from which several portraits have survived”. He also befriended the poet Jaime Sabartés. As Dr Isabel García García explains in her article for the Royal Academy of History, “it is highly likely that his conversations with the painter from Málaga encouraged him to pursue a formal exploration of Analytical Cubism, which soon evolved into an investigation of abstraction”. According to the Fundación Juan March, “he never ceased to be a restrained artist, little inclined towards artifice and committed to the pursuit of essentiality. He had drawn inspiration from avant garde movements and was also familiar with, and had assimilated, the work of artists such as Malevich, Kandinsky and Mondrian”. “Virgili's early Neo Cubist works were exhibited at the Castelucho Gallery in Paris. The exhibition was a group show devoted to artists of the war, entitled 'Exposición de Pintores de la España Libre' (Exhibition of Painters of Free Spain)”. War continued to haunt him, and the Second World War forced him to settle in 'Toulouse, a region that would become one of the strongholds of the Spanish Resistance. He became fully integrated into the community of exiled artists (Manuel Camps Vicens, Pablo Salen, Joaquín Vicens Gironella, Izquierdo Carvajal, Michel Battle...), who sought to resume their artistic activities”. They were united in their determination to uphold art even, or perhaps especially, in times of war; united in expressing themselves through the only language they knew: art. He managed to exhibit his two series, 'Still Lifes' and 'Mediterranean Landscapes', in the entrance hall of the newspaper Gazette des Tribunaux. Dr García further explains that “by around 1945, his health was deteriorating, compounded by financial difficulties and his [commendable, we would add] passion for painting, which compelled him to work on any available surface, including tablecloths, sheets, sacks, wooden boards, cardboard and other materials. […] Shortly afterwards, Virgili died at just thirty three years of age, having produced more than a hundred works, which were stored and stacked against the walls of a barn”. According to the Fundación Juan March, “this body of work constituted the written language of an artist: the strokes, symbols and objects of a creator who died far too soon. Today, his work is represented in the Patio Herreriano Museum in Valladolid and the Museum of Exile in La Jonquera, Girona, among other collections”. Reference bibliography: - García, Isabel. (n.d.). “Virgilio Batlle Vallmajó”. Royal Academy of History. Historia Hispánica. https://historia-hispanica.rah.es/biografias/6359-virgilio-batlle-vallmajo - Fundación Juan March. (n.d.). “Batlle Vallmajó, Virgili, 1914–1947”. https://archivo.march.es/agents/people/3656