Opening: Monday 16 September, 7:00 p.m.
On the fiftieth anniversary of his death, Fundació Vila Casas will hold an anthological exhibition about Francesc Domingo i Segura (Barcelona, 1893–São Paulo, 1974) which will help complete the understanding of all his work, including some as yet unknown aspects, and it represents his return from Brazil, having previously stated: “I won’t return to Catalonia until it is free”.
Educated in a working-class school, and gifted at drawing, he was a catalyst for the Agrupació Courbet, a group of young people who were driven towards the avant-garde by the Noucentist scene and the influence of Cézanne. He was a member of the Catalan School of Paris, and his art is inspired by his admiration for Picasso and an intimate assimilation of Catalan Romanesque Art, in a spiritual plasticism, which places him in the triad of the Catalan avant-garde: Miró-Dalí-Domingo. His choice of figuration, drawing inspiration from poetry for his work, which is also the starting point for poets such as Carles Riba, results in an introspective realism, with a delicate lyrical expression. With the onset of the Civil War, he placed himself fearlessly at the forefront of the artists, and his leadership in the so-called Catalan Revolution eventually led to his exile. In São Paulo, as a participant in Brazilian Modernism – which digests the European avant-gardes – and in order to produce a purely autochthonous art, Domingo makes his own cultural interpretation of the black Virgin of Montserrat and Mediterranean Maternity art, by painting, drawing and engraving numerous black and mixed-race maternities from Brazil. He also founded the Grupo Bisonte, with the motto of unity in diversity, with which he overcomes the duality of abstract art/figurative art, created for political purposes, and sends a universal message of fraternity among artists.
Exhibition curated by Natàlia Barenys.
© Francesc Domingo: Women, c. 1927. Oil on canvas. Private collection.