Xavier Viñolas i Pujol

Xavier Viñolas i Pujol , often briefly also Xavier Viñolas (* 1915 in Bonmatí (La Selva); † 2002 in Olot ) was a post-impressionist Catalan painter who was in the tradition of the Olot School .

Life

As a 14-year-old Viñolas attended the "Escola de Belles Arts" in Olot with Iu Pascual and Melcior Domenge . He also worked as a sculptor for the handicraft company "El Arte Cristiano". From 1934 he attended the Escola Superior de Paisatge a Olot ("Academy for Landscape Painting in Olot"). His teachers here were Xavier Nogués , Pere Créixams and Francesc Labarta . In 1937 Viñolas was drafted into military service in the Spanish Civil War. He drew plans of the front for the army command, privately he sketched his impressions of the war and the resulting human misery in small, impressive drawings. After the war, he had to do normal military service in Melilla . In his free time, he was busy painting the North African landscape. In 1942 he returned to civilian life and had his first solo exhibition in the “Sala Armengol” in Olot. Numerous exhibitions followed in Figueres , Granollers and Barcelona . In 1968, when Pere Gussinyé retired as a teacher at the Olot Art School, Viñolas came to teach at the school. From his retirement in 1987, he dealt exclusively with painting.

The artistic work

In the late 1970s, there were roughly two directions in Olot's landscape painting:

1.) The traditional line, which has faithfully treated the landscape in the sense of a rural naturalism, seeing and painting it and which is directly related to the work of Joaquim and Marià Vayreda .

2.) The progressive line that seeks new artistic ways and techniques in landscape painting and, to a certain extent, counteracts an academicism in landscape painting. This second category includes artists such as Josep Pujol i Ripoll , Pere Plana i Puig , Joan Clapera i Mayà , Àngel Codinach .

Xavier Viñolas clearly belongs to the first category of Olotensian artists. His work is not complicated, it carries on the tradition of landscape painting by Olot in the spirit of the founders, the Vayreda brothers, and the great teachers of the past like Iu Pascual of the school. Viñolas deals with nature as his art object in two stages: first he tries to capture the essence of the landscape in his works and then leads us to the essence of every painting by letting the metaphysical of every true art shine through in colors and composition.

Xavier Viñolas has been neglected in Catalan art in the past. The retrospective of his work in the exhibition “Xavier Viñolas. Paisatge, Llum i Moviment ”(“ Xavier Viñolas. Landscape, Light and Movement ”) of the“ Museu de la Garrotxa ”, Olot from January 30th to April 6th, 2015 on his centenary, proves that his work posthumously suited him Gained importance.

literature

Domenec Moli: Xavier Viñolas . In: Viçens Coromina (editor): Olot Art, Doscents anys de pintura . Olot April 1979, pp. 261-270.
Ajuntament d'Olot (editor), Josep M. Canals: Diccionari Biogràfic d'Olot, Olot 2015, ISBN 978-84-938058-4-5 , page 790, article “Viñolas i Pujol, Xavier”; there also a bibliography of other works by and about Xavier Viñolas i Pujol.

media

Olot Cultura: “Xavier Viñolas. Paisatge, Llum i Moviment ”Youtube video for the anthological exhibition“ Xavier Viñolas. ”Landscape, light and movement in the“ Museu de la Garrotxa ”, Olot from January 30th to April 6th, 2015 (in Catalan, uploaded on March 4th 2015)

Individual evidence

↑ The biographical information comes from the special exhibition “Xavier Viñolas. Paisatge, Llum i Moviment (Landscape, Light and Movement) ”on the 100th birthday of the painter from January 30th to April 6th 2015 at the“ Museu de la Garrotxa ”, Olot
↑ The work of Viçens Coromina (editor): Olot Art, Doscents anys de pintura dated 1979.
↑ The explicit assignment of these artists was based on the following authors: Domenec Moli assigns these artists in his corresponding articles in: Viçens Coromina (editor): Olot Art, Doscents anys de pintura, at least implicitly descriptive of the mentioned second line of landscape painting by Olot. The painters mentioned are illustrated by M. Assumpcio Arnau i Prades and Joan Sala i Plana in their work L'art olotí en el XIX i XX. from 2013 summarized under the chapter heading “Una Renovació Artística” (“An artistic renewal”), whose leading figure was Josep Pujol.
↑ The characterization of the painting by Viñolas was based on the article by Domenec Moli (1979) in: Viçens Coromina (editor): Olot Art, Doscents anys de pintura .

personal data
SURNAME	Viñolas i Pujol, Xavier
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Viñolas, Xavier
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Catalan painter
DATE OF BIRTH	1915
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bonmatí
DATE OF DEATH	2002
Place of death	Olot

[1] The biographical information comes from the special exhibition “Xavier Viñolas. Paisatge, Llum i Moviment (Landscape, Light and Movement) ”on the 100th birthday of the painter from January 30th to April 6th 2015 at the“ Museu de la Garrotxa ”, Olot

[2] The work of Viçens Coromina (editor): Olot Art, Doscents anys de pintura dated 1979.

[3] The explicit assignment of these artists was based on the following authors: Domenec Moli assigns these artists in his corresponding articles in: Viçens Coromina (editor): Olot Art, Doscents anys de pintura, at least implicitly descriptive of the mentioned second line of landscape painting by Olot. The painters mentioned are illustrated by M. Assumpcio Arnau i Prades and Joan Sala i Plana in their work L'art olotí en el XIX i XX. from 2013 summarized under the chapter heading “Una Renovació Artística” (“An artistic renewal”), whose leading figure was Josep Pujol.

[4] The characterization of the painting by Viñolas was based on the article by Domenec Moli (1979) in: Viçens Coromina (editor): Olot Art, Doscents anys de pintura .