School of Olot
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The School of Olot (Catalan: Escola d'Olot ) refers to an important landscape painting school for Catalonia and Spain , which was founded in the second half of the 19th century by the painter Joaquim Vayreda i Vila (1843-1894). It encompasses all those artists who have used the Olot landscape as their primary source of inspiration for their work. In this school there was great freedom in terms of style, technique and art direction. Similar in many ways to the French landscape painting school of Barbizon and the Luminist school of Sitges , the Olot school also renounced traditional studio painting and looked for new forms of expression directly in nature. In their art, the painters met the demands of the bourgeoisie for a realistic art that should exude elegance, optimism and love at the same time. The preferred medium of this art became painting, especially landscape painting. Here lies the origin of the Olot School with its significant tradition of realistic landscape painting and the generally great artistic tradition of the city of Olot. The Museu Comarcal de la Garrotxa in Olot offers an excellent overview of the works of this landscape painting school. The landscape painting school of Olot ultimately institutionalized itself in an art academy, which is currently called Escola d'Art i Superior de Disseny d'Olot (Academy of Art and Drawing by Olot).
The history
At the end of the 18th century, at a time of economic boom and a return to political Catalanism, and against the background of the French Enlightenment, a boom in art began, supported by the bourgeoisie. This culminated in 1783 in Olot in the establishment of a public art school, the Escola de Dibuix d'Olot ("Drawing School of Olot"). The original goal was probably the training of artists and craftsmen for religious folk art. The first director of the school, Joan Carles Pañó (1755–1840), who was still trained in the neoclassical art style in Barcelona, went beyond the framework of contemporary academic art as well as the framework of given folk art.
The real beginning
The painter Joaquim Vayreda i Vila is considered to be the actual founder of the Olot School . His first pictures were characterized by a very strong naturalistic tendency. He later changed his concept and experimented mainly with the representation of light and with color variations in the representation of the landscape of Olot. The works of Joaquim Vayreda have drawn his brother Marià Vayreda i Vila and other painters such as Laureà Barrau , Enric Galwey , Joan Brull , Josep Masriera , Modest Urgell , Ramon Casas and Santiago Rusiñol artistically under the spell and thus to Olot to explore the numerous aspects of these To capture the landscape in new forms on the canvas.
The institutionalization as an art academy
The painting school was institutionalized above all by the painter and pedagogue of the movement Josep Berga i Boix , director of the Center Artístic-Cultural d'Olot founded in 1869 by Joaquim Vayreda ("Culture and Artists Center of Olot"). Berga also took over the management of the above-mentioned Escola de Dibuix d'Olot ("Olot Drawing School") from 1877 to 1914 . Through the annual exhibitions, the school achieved an increasing level of awareness and fame. Initially, these exhibitions were organized and carried out by the Center Artístic-Cultural , later other institutions in the city were also involved. In 1934, under the direction of Iu Pascual (1915-1934), the art school was raised to the rank of an art academy with the exact name: Escola Superior de Paisatge a Olot ("Academy for Landscape Painting in Olot"). Numerous famous artists were trained under all subsequent leaders such as Martí Casadevall (1934–1951), Bartomeu Mas i Collellmir (1951–1969) and Joan Vilà i Moncau (1969–1984), which ensured the continuity of the Olot School . In 1942, after the Spanish Civil War , all arts and crafts institutions in the city were combined in the Escola de Belles Arts i Oficis ("Academy of Fine Arts and Crafts"). There was a return to the roots of the Olotens School, a return to landscape painting. Since the 2003/2004 winter semester, the school has been officially called " Escola d'Art i Superior de Disseny d'Olot " and is currently managed by Antoni López Sànchez. Finally, some of the graduates are named who currently play an important role in Catalan art life with their works: Ramon Barnadas , Lluís Carbonell , Xavier Carbonell , Josep Pujol i Ripoll , Josep Berga i Boada , Josep Clarà , Melcior Domenge , Josep Pinós , Jordi Farjas i Darnés , Celestí Devesa , Rafael Llimona , Joaquim Marsillach , Pere Gussinyé , Vicenç Solé-Jorba , Sebastià Congost , Àngel Codinach , Jordi Curós , Marià Oliveras , Pere Plana i Puig , Joan Clapera i Mayà , Xavier Viñolas , Manuel Zamora Muñoz . The winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize 2017, Carme Pigem Barceló and Ramón Vilalta Pujol , are also alumni of the Olot Academy of Art.
Critique of the Olot School
Since the 1990s at the latest, the Olot School has been scrutinized more closely, especially from an art-critical perspective. Peter Krempin aptly formulated this criticism in 1998 in Die Zeit: The school, as “the supplier of images to the upper bourgeoisie”, is artistically frozen in a mannerism that does not tolerate any deviation from the originally naturalistic approach: “The priests of Olot” railed against the newly emerging at the turn of the century Modernismo , the Spanish Art Nouveau style and against the turning away from “God-willed naturalism .” Krempin then describes the art scene in Olot shortly before the turn of the millennium: “Fifteen art galleries in Olot can easily live off the production of the twenty or so painters who are currently working here . Among them are some who have concentrated on just a single landscape motif and paint it in changing seasons with different light, but always from the same traditional point of view. Their buyers, like their motives, have not evolved for two centuries. In the home of wealthy Catalans, a picture of the Olot school should still be seen. "
What is correct about this criticism is that this art market, which is partially adapted to the broad masses, has existed for a long time and is probably still there today. Against Krempin and against the criticism expressed in general, it must be stated that the Olot School has always faced developments in society in an artistically productive manner. Even Krempin refers to the great progressiveness of painters like Joaquim Vayreda and Josep Berga i Boix in their time , who artistically and technically opened the doors wide for Impressionism . The painter Josep Pujol , who in the early 1960s still brought the romanticizing rural motifs scolded by Krempin onto the canvas, opened up the Olotensian painting in a constructivist and colorful way in his interiors and urban landscapes. Pere Plana i Puig has a de facto socio-critical effect with his caricature-like peasant figures. The contemporary Olotensian caricaturist Tavi Algueró continues this socially critical line in his own way. Joan Clapera i Mayà opened up Olot's landscape painting in its early phase through Expressionism , later through Cubism, and finally even surrealist dimensions. Xavier Carbonell has found lovers all over the world with his special urban landscapes. The contemporary Olotensian painter Enrique Solanilla continues this line constructivistically in his New York pictures. His still lifes, in which he spells the construction of bodies similar to his New York pictures, were characterized by art critics as a further developed Morandi .
These few examples show that Olot's school is not as petrified as Krempin describes it. Compared to the situation of the Olot art scene described by Krempin shortly before the turn of the millennium, there have been significant changes: The economic crisis of 2007 and the following years did not leave Olot unaffected. The number of galleries - Krempin put it at 15 - has decreased significantly. Some painters have given up their "business". Some names have simply disappeared from the Olot art scene. Even artistically gifted, talented, very good painters often have a job alongside their art. Real artists never give up their vocation, art or painting, even under economic difficulties. The art studio of some Olotens artists was open to children, young people and adults in art, drawing and painting courses. In addition, the art fair in Olot, which has been taking place on October 18th parallel to the agricultural fair for many decades, should be mentioned. Here, highly qualified artists have sold and still sell artistically valuable drawings and watercolors as well as smaller art formats at affordable prices for everyone. Over the decades, the Olot artists have provided valuable receptive and productive art mediation, even to socially disadvantaged groups. With such commitment, the legacy of the Olot School will be carried productively into the future, beyond its narrow organizational boundaries.
literature
- Escola d'Olot. In: Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana . Enciclopèdia Catalana, accessed June 25, 2020 (Catalan).
- Enciclopèdia Catalana: Olot, escola d ' . In: Gran enciclopèdia catalana. 2nd edition 5th reprint 1992. Volume 16 . Enciclopèdia catalana, Barcelona 1987, ISBN 84-7739-014-2 , p. 367 (Catalan).
- M. Assumpcio Arnau i Prades, Joan Sala i Plana: L'art olotí en el xix i xx (series: Quaderns de la Revista de Girona), Girona 2013, ISBN 978-84-15808-03-9 , 96 pages
- Joaquim Danés i Torras : Història d'Olot, Volume XXI, Sisena part, L'ensenyament i la cultura, there on pages 4051 - 4093 “L'Escola Menor de Belles Arts i Oficis” (School of Fine Arts and Crafts) and on pages 4093 - 4096 "L'Escola Superior de Paisatges" (Art School for Landscape Painting)
- Hèlios Rubio et al .: Art de Catalunya (Ars Cataloniae) . L'Escola d'Olot (The School of Olot). 1st edition. tape 9 /16 (Pintura moderna i Contemporània). Edicions L'Isard, Barcelona 2001, ISBN 84-89931-19-4 , pp. 200-202 .
- Ajuntament d'Olot, Museu Comarcal Olot (editor): Directors de l'Escola, Obres i Etapes, Escola de Belles Arts 1783–1983 (Edicions Municipals No 21), Olot 1983, 32 unnumbered pages, exhibition catalog from 1983 in Catalan
Web links
- Enciclopedia.cat: Escola d'Olot (School of Landscape Painting of Olot). Retrieved January 30, 2018 (Catalan).
- Peter Krempin: The painters of Olot. In: www.zeit.de. Die Zeit Online, July 2, 1998, archived from the original on August 9, 2019 ; accessed on June 24, 2020 .
- Academy of Fine Arts Olot: Escola d'Art d'Olot. Retrieved January 30, 2018 .
Footnotes
- ↑ Marià Vayreda i Vila, sometimes also called "Marian", (* 1853 in Olot; † 1903 in Barcelona); Marià Vayreda was also active as a writer on a larger scale.
- ↑ See the article by Peter Krempin referenced in the external links: "Die Maler von Olot", 1998.
- ^ Krempin, 1998.
- ↑ What is meant is the situation in 2016 to 2018.
- ↑ As of December 2019, the German-speaking author, who put down family roots in Olot many years ago, is aware of four galleries in the city.
- ↑ This is also the name of the painter Krempin referred to in his article.
- ↑ Lluis and Xavier Carbonell are examples here.