Esther Boix i Pons (Llers, Girona, 1927–Anglès, Girona, 2014) exemplifies struggle and overcoming adversity. She embarked on the world of art with a dark, harsh painting, reflecting a society immersed in the misery of the post-war years: humble interiors, hunger and existential emptiness. Following a trip to Paris, and an even more important visit to Milan, her painting and her perspective of the world underwent a seismic change, much more open and full of life.
She was committed to social change and conceived painting as a tool to defend individual and collective rights and freedoms, and played an active role in initiatives such as the Estampa Popular Catalana and the fight against the Franco dictatorship. All the while, she dedicated herself to teaching as a founding member of the Escola d’Expressió L’ARC, where she trained generations of young people thus placing art at the service of the people.
In the late seventies, she began to focus her art on landscape, drawing on a deep ecological awareness and leading to a period of lyrical plenitude in which nature and humankind merge together. This exhibition, held as we approach the centenary of her birth, is the first great retrospective dedicated to the artist and the first to be held in Catalonia since 2007.
Bernat Puigdollers, curator of the exhibition
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