Lluís Carbonell i Colom

Allegory "Life" (Luís Carbonell i Colom), 1969, Clinic "Verge del Tura", Olot (today, September 2017, an old people's home)

Lluís Carbonell i Colom (born April 22, 1910 in Olot ; † 1992 ibid) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and art teacher. As a visual artist, he also worked in the field of engraving and design. He lived and worked in the artist town of Olot, Catalonia , Spain . As an art educator, he taught in his own art academy and as a professor at the Olot Art Academy . Lluís Carbonell was the father of the painter Xavier Carbonell .

Career

As a child, Carbonell took courses in fine arts. In 1918 he entered the art school of Melcior Domenge for drawing and painting lessons and in 1920 in the "Escola de Belles Artes" of Olot. Here he took drawing lessons from the sculptor Celestí Devesa . From 1925 he received an introduction to sculpture in Martí Casadevall's studio . From 1929 he first took part in public exhibitions. In 1935 he enrolled at the Olot Art Academy under the director Iu Pascual . He studied painting and drawing in nature and outdoors with professors Francesc Labarta and Pere Créixams , among others . With Xavier Nogués he developed the techniques of engraving, lithography and woodcut. In 1942, Carbonell was appointed professor at the "Escola de Belles Arts" in Olot on the basis of a competition organized by the Diputacio (district administration) of Girona. In 1946 he founded his private art academy in the Casa Batlló house in Olot. He held the position of professor at the art academy for 38 years until he retired in 1980.

Carbonell was considered a highly talented and highly creative art teacher and art mediator. He was not only interested in the good training of professional artists. Just as important to him was the receptive as the productive communication of art as a human existential to broad social classes. In this context, he conducted art courses for schoolchildren and young people in his academy during the school holidays and for those interested in art throughout the year. In addition, he offered high-quality, small-format works of art at affordable prices for all interested sections of the population at the art fairs held in Olot every autumn.

The Art of Carbonell

As a curious researcher, Carbonell has approached the visual arts in a wide variety of genres. In addition to the decoration, poster design and modeling of large, mythical folklore figures and the design of dioramas for Christmas (nativity scenes) and Easter events, the genre of drawings, portraits and engravings, he has artistically devoted himself to landscape painting. He achieved the greatest popularity in the sculpture of religious and secular as well as nude motifs and in the genre of wall relief.

Art deco, posters, folk characters

The posters designed by Carbonell impressed with their strongly geometrical sense. In the modeling of folkloric and mythical figures such as the giants of Olot, his extraordinary ability in the field of sculpture, his excellent knowledge of the human form and his outstanding sense of proportion and beauty was shown. At the same time his great knowledge of history and tradition was revealed. The figures radiate a lot of light, colors and joie de vivre. Many people enjoyed these works during the city parades. In these folk figures, Carbonell came very close, especially to children.

Christmas cribs and Holy Week representations (dioramas)

Carbonell faced the Olotensian religious tradition of dioramas for Christmas and Easter with great sensitivity and loyalty . A diorama is the plastic representation of a religious event with many figures. Some of the figures are motivated, such as the newborn Christ child in the Christmas crib. Different figures are reinvented and created in each work from the viewer's circle of life. Carbonell has often won the annual Olot crib competition with his work. In the reviews of Carbonell's cribs it is emphasized that he incorporates worldly life into the biblical motif in a highly valuable artistic manner. In Carbonell's dioramas for Holy Week, in contrast to the Christmas motif, the feelings of fear, pain and oppression come to the fore in view of the Passion of Christ. In both the Christmas and Holy Week dioramas, Carbonell skilfully stages his innermost feelings.

Drawings, portraits, engravings

Drawing as the physical, expressive basis of the fine arts is an essential form of expression for Carbonell. His lines are free, light and determined; their security is an expression of a strong natural feeling. The drawings always hit the right point in the representation of the space and the light-shadow relationships. On the basis of these drawing skills in connection with an outstanding gift of observation, Carbonell also becomes an excellent portrait painter. Human warmth appears in each of his portraits of acquaintances and friends. Especially the eyes of those portrayed let feelings shine through. In a similar way he creates his engravings, complete, detailed and always cleverly chosen in terms of the motif.

Sculpture and wall relief

Some critics rate Carbonell's sculptures as his actual artistic highlight. Based on the religiously oriented sculpture of a Miquel Blay , a Josep Llimona and a Josep Berga i Boada , he created religious figures with great care, excellent skill and an outstanding sense of originality, which always had the appropriate volume. Similarly, he mastered the nude in the field of sculpture. His nudes are characterized by the best possible proportions. They reveal a deep anatomical knowledge. The figures rise slim from their pedestal in an aesthetic of high clarity. Carbonell is just as confident in the technique of wall relief. The symbols, figures, allegories and legends always have the right proportions and are simply beautiful. In this technique, Carbonell is committed to a Mediterranean art.

Landscape painting

As an artist born in Olot, Carbonell, so to speak, absorbed landscape painting with his mother's milk. The landscape of the Garrotxa around Olot only exists so that painters can give their impressions of shapes and colors, so that poets can write their poems about it. Carbonell's landscapes are tender. They present themselves in radiant power through reliable color strokes and successful color mixtures. From the first landscape pictures around 1920 to his last, an artistic-evolutionary process can be ascertained with increasing certainty in practice. He achieves this artistic progress through constant research into form, technology and color. His development in the figurative area comes close to abstractions and has a very refreshing effect in the more recent works. Carbonell's artistic gaze was always forward and never backward.

Honors and prizes

• 1950: First prize in the competition "Posters of the City of Palma de Mallorca "
• 1959: Silver medal for engraving in the Diputacio de Girona art competition (Girona district government)
• 1981: Silver medal of the "Escola de Belles Arts d'Olot" for 38 years of teaching at this academy

Works (selection)

• 1943: Altar painting "Immaculada" (Santa Carme Church in Olot)
• 1943: Sculpture "La Verge de la Salut" (180 cm, main altar of the church "Santuari de la Salut" in Sant Feliu de Pallerols )
• 1944: Baroque stone relief (300 - 250 cm, facade of the church in Hinojosa del Duque , Province of Cordoba, Andalusia)
• 1944: Procession throne for the figure of Mary "Virgin Carmen" (Santa Carme Church in Olot)
• 1951: Wall painting "La indústria" on a gilded plate (200 × 100 cm, Barcelona)
• 1951: Sculptures Saint Bassilisia and Saint Julian (150 cm, wood carvings, parish church in Vullpellac )
• 1952: Triptych "The Sixth Sorrow of the Virgin" (neoclassical, private collection Barcelona)
• 1961: Bronze medallion portrait Werner von Siemens, for Siemens, Barcelona (diameter 100 cm)
• 1965: Wall relief made of stone - homage to agriculture and industry, the family and old age, Caixa de Pensions, Olot (organized as a triptych, 300 × 200 cm)
• 1966: Oil painting "Fishing Nets" (Catalan. "Xarxes"), Garrotxa Museum , Olot (100 × 81 cm)
• 1963: Stone statue of Mary "Verge del Carme" for the facade of the Carmen Church in Managua , Costa Rica (height 450 cm)
• 1969: Wall relief made of aluminum - allegory "La Vida" Clinic Verge del Tura, Olot (370 × 180 cm)
• 1972: Wall relief made of wood and oxidized silver - Printing through the ages, Industries Gràfiques Alzamora, Olot (300 × 100 cm)
• 1980: Oil painting portrait of the doctor and historian Joaquim Danés i Torras (Gallery of the Illustrious Olotensians, City Council of Olot, 81 × 65 cm)

Exhibitions (selection)

• 1929: Participation in the group exhibition in the “Saló Citroën”, Olot
• 1930: Participation in the group exhibition in the “Sala Vayreda”, Olot
• 1947: Exhibition of pastel pictures (created in 1946 after human models) in the “Francesc Arrmengol” building, Olot
• 1958: Participation in the exhibition "175 Years of Escola de Belles Arts d'Olot"
• 1977: Exhibition of drawings in the “Les Voltes” gallery, Olot
• 1981: Participation in the exhibition “Current Sculpture in Olot” in the “Sala oberta”, Olot
• 1983: Participation in the exhibition "200 years of Escola de Belles Arts d'Olot" with the painting "Interior"
• 1986: Participation in the exhibition of the "Escola Superior de Paisatge d'Olot" with the picture "Dona en blanc" and various open-air drawings in the "Sala La Carbonera" in Olot

literature

• Miquel Gil i Bonancia: Lluis Carbonell - Disseny, Diorama, Dibuix, Gravat, Escultura, Pintura . Alzamora Artgràfica, Olot 1988, ISBN 84-86377-50-1 .

Web links

• Lluís Carbonell: The Giants of Terrassa. Retrieved April 26, 2018 (Catalan). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ This house at Casa Batlló, No. 35, Carrer de Sant Rafel, Olot, has now given way to a modern, functional urban business development.