birth
Barcelona, Spain, 1923
death
Barcelona, Spain, 2009
see too
Ràfols Casamada, Albert
last update
27-11-2024
Albert Ràfols-Casamada (Barcelona, 1923 - 2009) was one of Catalonia’s most important and multifaceted artists. He started drawing and painting under the guidance of his father, Albert Ràfols Cullerés, and dropped out of his architecture studies after a few years in order to concentrate on painting. He exhibited his work for the first time in 1946 in Barcelona with the group Els Vuit. A scholarship from the French government allowed him to move to Paris in 1950, and he remained there until 1954. On his return to Barcelona he soon began to hold regular exhibitions, and in 1961 he held his first show at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Barcelona (1960-1963).
Ràfols-Casamadas had a long career as a painter and writer and produced an extensive and highly regarded body of work. He was able to integrate the best of Henri Matisse and American abstract expressionism in an extremely coherent exploration of colour. Although he initially began painting figuratively, he gradually evolved towards a kind of abstraction based on the importance of colour and the use of geometric structures. In the late fifties and early sixties he began making collages and narrowing his chromatic range to an austere predominance of shades of white. In the eighties, at the peak of his creative maturity, he again began to use signs with a strong symbolic and aesthetic component and to highlight the importance of colour in his work.
He began teaching art and design in 1962 at Elisava art school and later at EINA, an art school based on the pedagogy of the Bauhaus that he co-founded in 1967 along with a group of intellectuals, teachers and artists. He was the director of the school for seventeen years. Although his literary career began quite late in life (he published his first book of poems in 1976), he nonetheless produced work in several genres such as essay and poetry, and also illustrated several Catalan literary classics. In 2000, Proa published his complete works of poetry in a single volume: Signe d’aire: obra poètica (1939-1999).
Ràfols-Casamadas had a long career as a painter and writer and produced an extensive and highly regarded body of work. He was able to integrate the best of Henri Matisse and American abstract expressionism in an extremely coherent exploration of colour. Although he initially began painting figuratively, he gradually evolved towards a kind of abstraction based on the importance of colour and the use of geometric structures. In the late fifties and early sixties he began making collages and narrowing his chromatic range to an austere predominance of shades of white. In the eighties, at the peak of his creative maturity, he again began to use signs with a strong symbolic and aesthetic component and to highlight the importance of colour in his work.
He began teaching art and design in 1962 at Elisava art school and later at EINA, an art school based on the pedagogy of the Bauhaus that he co-founded in 1967 along with a group of intellectuals, teachers and artists. He was the director of the school for seventeen years. Although his literary career began quite late in life (he published his first book of poems in 1976), he nonetheless produced work in several genres such as essay and poetry, and also illustrated several Catalan literary classics. In 2000, Proa published his complete works of poetry in a single volume: Signe d’aire: obra poètica (1939-1999).
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works
36 results
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Vuit vents de Cadaqués. Tramuntana, Gregal, Llevant, Xaloc, Migjorn, Garbí, Ponent, Mestral
1977
Albert Ràfols-Casamada
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documents
25 results
Albert Ràfols-Casamada. 1953-2001 [Reportatge fotogràfic inauguració exposició]
document
21-3-2001
Policromia o La galería dels miralls / Albert Ràfols-Casamada
document
1999
Pintura dels setanta a Barcelona. Superfície i color [Reportatge fotogràfic inauguració exposició]
document
18-9-1997
Carta : Barcelona, a Joan Brossa ,Barcelona, 1997 març 20
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1997
Ràfols Casamada
document
[1996]
L'art pot morir : homenatge a Joan Miró / gravats calcogràfics: Joan Brossa ... [et al.] ; text: Vicenç Altaió
document
1993
Carta : Barcelona, a Joan Brossa, Madrid, 1991 febr. 7
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1991
Estrats : poemes visuals / Albert Ràfols Casamada
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1985
Estrats : poemes visuals / Albert Ràfols Casamada
document
1985
Arc voltaic
document
[1980?]
Carta : Barcelona, a Joan Brossa, Ciutat [i.e. Barcelona], 1978 oct. 16
document
1978
Notes nocturnes / Albert Ràfols Casamada
document
1976
Notes nocturnes / Albert Ràfols Casamada
document
1976
Full informatiu [núm. 2]
document
1975
Ràfols Casamada
document
[1975]
Carta : Barcelona, a Joan Brossa, Barcelona, 1974 maig 30
document
1974
Carta : Barcelona, a Maria Lluïsa Borràs, Barcelona, 1973 març 21
document
1973
Carta : Barcelona, a Brossa [i.e. Joan Brossa], Barcelona, 1973 jul. 12
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1973
Poesia visual : Eina juny 73
document
[1973?]
Carta circular : Barcelona, a [Maria Lluïsa Borràs], [Barcelona], 1973 gen. 2
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1973
Carta : Barcelona, a Maria Lluïsa Borràs, Barcelona, [1973]
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1973
Carta : Barcelona, a Maria Lluïsa Borràs, Barcelona, 1973 març 29
document
1973
Carta : Barcelona, a Joan Brossa, Ciutat [i.e. Barcelona], 1973 maig 7
document
1973
Ràfols Casamada : pintura
document
1961
Carta : [Barcelona], a Brossa [i.e. Joan Brossa], [Barcelona, 19--]
document
[19--]