Josep María Sert: Recuerdos y evocaciones

Josep María Sert: Recuerdos y evocaciones

This exhibition presents two series, Marvellous Memories and Spanish Evocations, by Josep Maria Sert (Barcelona, 1874-1945), one of the most celebrated, sought-after and controversial painters of his time, who enjoyed great prestige among the European and American elites of the day. On the fringes of the avant-garde, Sert developed his own style, combining the tradition of the great Baroque frescoes, Goyaesque expressionism, Orientalist touches and a grandiloquent narrative style. Los recuerdos maravillosos (‘Wonderful Memories’, 1916) links the artist to art deco, a trend he used to endow his figures with great exoticism. Commissioned by the railway pioneer Sir Saxton Noble for the dining room of his residence at Wretham Hall, England, this series offers, in reaction to the war, a colourful return to childhood and its games.

Evocaciones españolas (‘Spanish Evocations’, 1942), executed for the music room of Juan March Ordinas's Madrid residence, represents the painter's most classical style, characterised by monumentality narrated in monochrome terms. The use of grisaille enabled Sert to achieve effects akin to sculptural relief, while the use of diagonal perspectives and foreshortening gives these paintings the grandiloquence characteristic of his mature work. The exhibition also includes some undated sketches from this series and the screen for the residence of the lawyer Benjamin Moore in Long Island, New York, Market in a Mediterranean town. Sert's life, like his work, was intense and singular, marked by a strong personality and an ambitious spirit full of contradictions. Settled in Paris from a very young age and married twice to two women as exceptional as himself, he was in contact with many of the great artistic, intellectual and political personalities of his time. He is an excessive and charismatic character, an inescapable part of our recent social and cultural history.

The exhibition brings together 27 works, including two decorative sets and sketches, all from private collections.