Josep Maria de Sucre, Activist and Visionary Artist

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Image courtesy of Fundació Vila Casas.

Josep Maria de Sucre (Barcelona, 1886–1969) was a painter, poet, art critic and one of the great cultural promoters of his time. His career was crucially placed in the transition from noucentism towards the avant-garde in twentieth-century Catalunya. With a sensitivity that was ahead of his time, his artwork anticipated some of the neo-expressionist approaches that would only emerge decades later, especially in the way it delved into human psychology through the face. Faces, masks and portraits become spaces for exploring the inner being, marked by an expressive intensity and disconcerting depth that appeal directly to the viewing public.

This exhibition pays tribute to Josep Maria de Sucre by not only highlighting his artistic production but also his key role as a spiritual patron of a generation of artists in the early post-war years. It gathers together works by around thirty Catalan artists who resumed the momentum of the first avant-gardes, which had been interrupted by the Spanish Civil War. In this context, Sucre’s work was fundamental as a bridge between the artists from the Republican years and the newly emerging artists who, thanks to scholarships awarded by the Institut Français to study in Paris, were able to reconnect with international artistic trends and a cosmopolitan modernity. Thus, this exhibition seeks to rediscover an artist and a historical period that merit a closer look within the account of post-war Catalan art.

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