Manuel Capdevila

Manuel Capdevila i Massana (Barcelona, ​​December 28, 1910 - April 18, 2006) was a Catalan painter and goldsmith, son of the goldsmith Joaquín Capdevila y Meya and father of the goldsmith, Joaquim Capdevila y Gaya

Training:
In 1925 he began his training in the workshop of the paternal society formed by Artur Roig and his father Joaquim Capdevila i Meya, in the street Doctor Dou of Barcelona Paralelamente attends the classes of Francesc d'Assis Galí and Feliu Elias in the Ateneo Polytechnicum

A year later, he made his first stay in Paris where he came into contact with the avant-garde. He toured different museums in the French capital and was strongly impacted in the Luxembourg Museum by the painting of Maurice de Vlaminck and Georges Rouault before the indiscriminate and wild Application of color, unveiling in it unequivocally the pictorial vocation, which from then on would be dedicated with attention and enthusiasm to it

Returning to Barcelona he continues with the office of jeweler and with his passion for painting. He joins the FAD, initially Fomento de los Artes Decorativas and currently Fomento de las Artes y del Diseño, as a partner in 1926 and becomes an active member

First exhibitions and Paris:
From 1933 to 1936 he exhibited his first paintings collectively in the Salon de Montjuïc In 1934 he made his first individual exhibition of painting at the Syra Gallery in Barcelona and as a jeweler receives the commission to build in collaboration with the sculptor Charles Collet the Gold Pectoral Medal, During this period he held the positions of Deputy Secretary of the FAD (1933-1934) and later Member of the Board of Directors (1934-1936). He was the President of the Court of Cassation of Catalonia (currently exhibited at the Museum of History of Catalonia)

He takes part in 1936 in the First Hall of Decorators of Barcelona and as goldsmith is invited to participate in the VI Triennale di Milano

During the years of the Spanish Civil War he resides in Paris where he manages to exhibit his painting in the Kleiman Gallery in the years 1936 and 1938. Knowing the different artistic currents carries out the realization of the collection of a series of six silver brooches with lacquer Japanese, applied by Ramon Sarsanedas, of surrealist connotation, exhibited in the Salon d'Automne celebrated in the French capital in 1938, among which it is possible to emphasize the named Spain collected, currently in the National Museum of Art of Catalonia

Return to Barcelona:
Back in Barcelona in 1939 he began the reconstruction and extension of the family workshop, damaged during the war, and assumed the artistic direction. He carries out a delicate floral repertoire, roses, snow flowers, poppies, along with other jewels of austere and subtle flavor The obstinate eagerness to renew the prevailing jewelry in the fifties, the constancy in the experimentation with different elements meticulously collected in the nature, pebbles, twigs of wood, shells, fossils, almost in pure state, will serve to construct an innovative jewels , Lush and simple

At this time he perfected his technique as a goldsmith, participating in numerous exhibitions of jewelry and painting promoted from the FAD, until in 1944 he imparts a masterful lesson in Goldsmithing and Jewelery at the Dome of the Coliseum in Barcelona

In 1947 the Abat Oliba Commission on the occasion of the Enthronement celebrations of the Virgin of Montserrat entrusted the realization of what will be his first work for the monastery of Montserrat, the "lamp of sardanism" Later he will make other very significant ones for the monastery, Among which stand out the doors of the chapel of the Virgin, the altar front, the canopy, the chapel for the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament as well as numerous objects destined for the liturgical garments

That same year he became a founding partner of El Salón de Octubre, participating in all editions from 1948 to 1957. From 1949 to 1950 he is part of the Lais Group

International Renowning:
In 1950 he is invited to the contest The 1950 Pittsburgh International at Carnegie Institute, Pennsylvania, where he presents the painting The Priest, which is currently part of the MNAC collection. A year later the Museum of Modern Art of Panama acquires the work Chrysanthemums

He is part of the Morera Prize Jury in 1953 Two years later he signed the manifesto drafted by Alexandre Cirici, creating the Institute of Industrial Design, as a member of the Management Board of the IDIB

At the request of Lluís Maria Güell, director of the Massana School, he assumes the creation of the Open Classroom of jewelry in 1959, from where he educates the students to reflect and discover the new possibilities of contemporary jewelry. He establishes contacts with the Kunst Werkschule of Pforzheim, Pioneer school in the sixties of the new artistic jewelry It promotes cultural exchanges between the two centers of pedagogy and in 1962 promotes from the Massan School

In 1961 he was invited to participate in the International Exhibition Modern Jewelery, from 1890 to 1961, organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum of London together with the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, held in Goldsmiths'Halls of the same city

In 1966 he organized in Barcelona, ​​together with Alexandre Cirici Pellicer, Antoni de Moragas and Cesáreo Rodríguez-Aguilera, the exhibition A Hundred Years of Catalan Jewelry, held at the Catalan and Balearic College of Architects

This year he created the Premio Lletra d'Or Prize, currently in force. He also created the Medal of the Spanish Association of Art Critics in order to reward the work of artists. He holds the medals awarded to Picasso, Miró, Chillida, Ortega Muñoz and Subirachs among others

In 1967, however, he took part in the Internationalen Handwerkmesse in the exhibition "Form und Qualität". The Circle of Jewelers in Barcelona offers a silver shrine for the chapel of the Santísimo of the Monastery of Montserrat, which is integrated in the altar of the sculptor Josep Maria Subirachs, projected And carried out by Capdevila and in which his children, Joaquín and Elisenda

Assignment of the workshop:
In 1970 Capdevila gave the direction of the jewelery shop to his son Joaquim Capdevila i Gaya, to dedicate himself in a more constant way to the painting. Still continues working with the jewels, as evidenced by the realization of the Medal President Macià commissioned by the Generalitat Of Catalonia in 1980 This same year participates in the exhibition Hundred Years of Catalan Culture organized by the National Patronage of Museums of Madrid

A year later he took part in the exhibitions La Catalogne Aujourd'hui held at the UNESCO Palace in Paris, also in 1900-1980, 80 Years of Catalan Jewelery and Goldwork, organized by Goldsmiths FAD and the Cultural Work of La Caixa Presented in Barcelona and Madrid

Tributes:
In 1986 he receives the Sant Jordi Cross awarded by the Generalitat de Catalunya, and the Circle of Jewelers of Barcelona and the Catalan Federation of Jewelers, Goldsmiths and Watchmakers pay him homage. This year he makes the construction of important pieces of goldsmith's work for the Parish of Nuestra Lady of Fatima of Granollers

In 1991 he is named Honorary Member of the Superior Conservatory of Music of the Lyceum

In 1993 the Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya organized in Palau Moja together with Sala Parés the exhibition of paintings and goldsmiths

In 1994 he was elected Academic Honorary of the Royal Catalan Academy of Fine Arts of San Jorge and in 1999 he was awarded the Gold Medal for Artistic Merit of the Barcelona City Council

In the year 2000, the Montserrat Museum gives a tribute exhibition, Manuel Capdevila painter + goldsmith, and in 2006 shortly before its transfer presents in the Sala Parés the last exhibition, Tranfiguracions

Painting:
The initial painting of Capdevila shows a prudent and light stroke, with a clear predominance of the ochres in the early landscapes Attracted by the fauvistas he enters the adventure of the application of color His brushstrokes acquire firmness and intensity while gaining in thickness And texture From the second half of the 1940s, the repertoire of themes, images and still lifes is expanded. Landscapes become more complex with figures and architectures. The decade of the seventies incorporates into their repertoire the chronicles of travel and political criticism and Social The blues, greens and reds applied with greatness will accompany you until the last work

Goldsmithing:
As a jeweler and goldsmith, Capdevila presents a manifest proposal of aesthetic and conceptual renewal that extends to the civil and religious goldsmiths becoming a capital figure of the international jewelry of the XX century

Museums with his work:
You can see his works in:

Barcelona: National Museum of Art of Catalonia, Museum of History of Catalonia, Museum of Decorative Arts, Palace of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Consortium of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Palace of Music, Promotion of Decorative Arts
Catalonia: Montserrat Monastery, Montserrat Monastery, Montserrat Escolania, Poblet Monastery, Francesc Galí Art Fund, Bank of Sabadell Collection, Collection of the Savings and Pension Fund of Barcelona, ​​Mas-Sardà Collection, Art Collection of the Avui
Rest of Spain: Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art (Madrid), Camón Aznar Museum, (Zaragoza), Contemporary Spanish Landscape Museum Antonio Povedano, (Priego de Córdoba)
America: Museum of Modern Art of Panama
Awards and Honours:
1950 - Prize Christmas, ex-aequo with Ramón Rogent, of the Galleries Laeitanes, with the painting Bethlehem of the White Virgin
1950 - Accésit at the I San Jorge County Contest
1955 - Best Landscape Award at the III Hispano-American Biennial
1967 - Gold Medal of the State of Bavaria
1967 - 1st Prize and the Gold Medal at the IV Bienal de Arte de Zaragoza
1967 - 1st Prize of Painting with the Gold Medal at the International Biennial of Sport in the Fine Arts, Zaragoza
1967 - Award Clock and Diploma of Honor
1970 - Prize of Landscape Estrada with the work Spring in the 1st National Contest of Painting towns and landscapes of Catalonia, in the Gallery Mundi Art of Barcelona
1986 - Cruz de Sant Jordi
http://hisour.com/artist/manuel-capdevila/