LUIS MARIA GÜELL I CORTINA (Vilafranca del Penedés,... Lot 29

LUIS MARIA GÜELL I CORTINA (Vilafranca del Penedés, 1909 - Barcelona, 2001). "Rural landscape". Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower left corner. Measures: 36 x 47 cm; 57.5 x 69 cm (frame) Lluís Maria Güell studied at the Barcelona School of Fine Arts and was a disciple of Joaquín Mir, which undoubtedly influenced his dedication to landscape painting, which he recreated with mastery and personality. He exhibited for the first time in 1929, at the Niu d'Art, and that same year he founded the magazine "Hélix", one of the most interesting avant-garde publications of its time. In 1930 he travelled around Spain and Algeria, and then visited Paris in 1931. He returned to Catalonia and exhibited his work at the Sala Parés in Barcelona in 1934. During these years his style evolved from a Pointillist tendency towards a nature close to Corot, based on wide canvases and grey chromaticism. Later he held exhibitions in Madrid, Bilbao, Paris, Algiers, Havana and Bogotá, among other cities. He took part in the National Exhibitions of 1934 and 1935, and in 1939 he took part in the Exhibition of Drawing, Watercolour and Engraving of the Mediterranean, held in Valencia and Madrid. In 1942 he was awarded the Masriera Medal of the Barcelona Academy, and in 1950 he received the Sant Jordi Prize from the provincial council. After visiting Italy in 1947 to broaden his knowledge, he practised fresco mural painting, carrying out restoration work in various churches in Catalonia and Murcia. Güell was a member of the Círculo Artístico de Sant Lluc, in whose exhibitions he took part assiduously, and in 1951 he held an exhibition at the Sala Gaspar in Barcelona, where he has been present ever since. In 1952 he was awarded the Prize of the Royal Artistic Circle of Barcelona. He taught drawing at the Llotja School in Barcelona, and was director of the Massana School between 1956 and 1976, where he created the sections of print design, jewellery, lacquer, muralism, painting and sculpture, graphic design and industrial and interior design. He is also the author of an interesting treatise on landscape. In 1979 he exhibited at the Vilafranca Museum and in 1981 at the Agora 3 gallery in Sitges. In 1988 he was awarded the Cross of Sant Jordi, and in 2004 an anthological exhibition was dedicated to him at the Fòrum Berguer Balaguer of Caixa Penedés, in his native Vilafranca. Works by him can be found in the MACBA and the Museum of Vilafranca del Penedès.