218 - JOAN CLARET COROMINAS (Barcelona, 1929-2014).

JOAN CLARET COROMINAS (Barcelona, 1929-2014). "Composition", ca. 1965. Etching on aluminum. With label on the back of Sala Gaspar. The frame is damaged. Measurements: 75 x 54 cm; 90 x 69 cm (frame). Painter of self-taught formation, Joan Claret studied architecture from 1947, and from 1957 philosophy in the Universities of the Sorbonne of Paris and Barcelona. He was a member of the group 0 Figura, participating in the group's exhibitions and in the publications he produced in collaboration with Sala Gaspar in Barcelona, such as "Homenaje informal a Velázquez", "El objeto", "Mural", etc. He made his individual debut in 1959 in the aforementioned Barcelona gallery, and that same year he participated in the Salón de Mayo in Barcelona and in the Nacional de Bellas Artes in Madrid. Since then he has had solo exhibitions in Barcelona, Madrid, Geneva, Bogota and Munich, among other cities, and has participated in group exhibitions in Tokyo (1961), London (1962), Florida (1964), New York (1986 and 1987) and various cities in Spain. He was awarded the first Joan Miró drawing prize (1962). Joan Claret develops a painting determined by a conception of open spaces and forms, resolved only through composition, rhythm and controlled organization. He thus creates a deeply personal expressionism of geometric type, in which white, black and gray dominate. Within his personal plastic language, color has the function of accentuating those parts of the canvas that, according to the general order of the elements, the artist considers more important. Likewise, he uses light to give depth and contrast to the different planes. However, it is the line that is the basic element on which he works, which he himself identifies with the notes of the stave for the musician. According to his own words, Claret does not intend to convey any extra-pictorial, social or any other kind of message; his work focuses on the approach to aesthetic problems, spaces and forms, based on a rational and meditated work, far from improvisation and uncontrolled brushstrokes. In his plastic language, all accessory elements are superfluous, since he always seeks, above all, to reach a maximum of simplicity, where everything is elementary, essential and essential, and where everything, even the smallest element, is justified. Joan Claret is currently represented, among others, in the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, in the MNAC in Barcelona, in collections such as those of the BBVA, Fundació Vila Casas, Juan March Foundation, Carmen and Lluís Bassat collection, and outstanding private collections.