Miquel Torner de Semir (1938) - Ecos del mar

Signed by the artist on the bottom The work is presented framed Artwork dimensions: 33 cm high × 41 cm wide Frame dimensions: 56 cm high × 64 cm wide Good condition BIOGRAPHY OF MIQUEL TORNER DE SEMIR. Miquel Torner de Semir was born in 1938 in the castle of Santa Pau, in La Garrotxa (Girona), the last living person born in this emblematic fortress surrounded by volcanoes (currently he lives in San Feliu de Guíxols). This fact marks his painterly career. A man of old Catalonia, cultured, he has always felt drawn to the Middle Ages, the Romanesque of the Pyrenees, and primitive Gothic. The influence of Italian Renaissance art, especially painters of the Italian Quattrocento such as Fra Angélico or Raphael, is evident in many of Torner de Semir’s female portraits, including the one we have here. It is precisely this blend of the old and the new that lies at the heart of the originality of his work. What seems to have shaped him most is the knowledge of Romanesque and Gothic art. His figures, often outlined with a thick dark line, evoke Gothic stained glass—luminous, beautiful in themselves and for themselves. A disciple of the muralist and engraver Ricard Marlet, he learns what he considers most important: the discipline of drawing. Under Maestro Marlet he encounters Modernism and the Catalan Noucentisme. He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Sant Jordi in Barcelona and at the San Fernando school in Madrid, where he visited the Prado Museum and took in Velázquez’s painting, choosing to reproduce the meninas to his liking, with his own style, using bright colors such as pink and fluorescent violet that leave no doubt about the artist’s emphasis, modernity, and charm. Moreover, if you look closely, you can see the collage technique used by the artist, who embeds a piece of fabric, cardboard, or even a musical score. In Paris, he begins his work as he himself calls it “between the old and the new.” He began holding solo exhibitions in Terrassa in 1968, later in other Catalan cities and in Paris (Espace and Boutique galleries). His work began in a Mediterranean figurativism, evolving then into abstraction, and returning to a modern figurative concept. He is considered, ultimately, one of the most important exponents of Mediterranean painting. All these tendencies were not unknown to him, since in Barcelona he had the chance to meet the Dau al Set group. In the Dau al Set school he interacts with renowned artists such as Tharrats, Muxart, or Tapiés. His painting is characterized by the use of vivid, rich colors. His work can be defined in a single word: LIFE. Thus, the magnificent work of this Catalan painter is characterized by its rich, dense color and the various materials he uses as support, giving us the result of high-quality chromatic expressionist painting with a strong personality, defining the artist as a master. The classic and the new fuse within Miquel Torner de Semir’s brush. Time dilutes, fades away. The dividing line between past and present is erased by his paintings, by his way of tracing on the canvas. Miquel achieves what very few have before: to speak of the past with the voice of the present. His voice: his paintings. His method: passion. His achievement: his entire body of work. The painter from Girona is influenced by the old masters, Giotto, the Italian Renaissance, and the informal search of the abstract painters. All this is the starting point of his painting; craft matters as much or more than concept. He has tried to be a bridge painter between the past and the present, but also open to all that is new, to constant search. An interesting contrast in Torner de Semir’s work is how he presents people, places, and situations from ancient eras, depicted with modern painting techniques. This distinguished Catalan painter has managed to break with the rules of time. So direct is Miquel Torner de Semir in defining lines and shapes that it is almost unbelievable that the work is a two-dimensional canvas, at first glance appearing to be a compilation of textures from a three-dimensional world. Some of his works have a notable Fauvist accent, with an intense, expressive color palette, in contrast to the serenity and vacant look of the faces that invites the viewer to enter the world of the artwork and the artist’s thinking. Nevertheless, Torner de Semir has a style of his own based on the simplicity of execution within a very well-structured composition. The female figures have the calm forms of religious art and express the calm of the spirit. The figure serves Semir to claim order and the rhythm of human actions. According to Joan Lluís Montañé, Barcelonese, member of the International Association of Art Critics, the prestigious Catalan painter Torner de Semir, in his extensive painting work, “is interested in composition and color, generating specially elaborated creations where the imprint of determination and a contrasted color palette is evident. It features figures, landscapes, and compositions that represent a clear exercise in pictorial academicism in which he does not renounce a certain formal and technical innovation, all within an unmistakable personal plastic mark.” Art critic Josep M. Cadena says of Semir: “The painter marks with strong, precise lines the silhouettes of the main elements of each composition and uses basic, pure colors to express feelings. When possible he paints the painting within the painting, and even tries to place in its backgrounds interpretations and abstract signs. Thus he achieves a positive relationship between the various forms of artistic expression that motivate him, and his plastic language is much richer and more attractive. He has a style of his own based on the simplicity of execution within a well-structured composition. His female figures have the calm forms of religious art and express the calm that must govern the realizations of the spirit. The figure serves to demand order and rhythm in human actions; his painting is ethical. He communicates positive feelings easily to those who know his work.” For J. Llop S.: “Drawing, the fundamental, strong, precise, incisive stroke, establishes the form, delineates spaces in the meditated compositions that Torner de Semir presents. And then comes the seeing in a different way, the imaginative, the dreams that connect with the reality he describes and dresses with a chromaticism that blends basic colors with soft tones. It is a personal style that discovers the other reality of the landscape, of the figure. An interesting and attractive work that captivates the viewer and leads them along the path of the imaginative.” Consistent with his view of the primitivists, he has not paid too much attention to his social projection toward his masters, who were sometimes nameless, and although his works are in many countries, he has exhibited in Europe, America, and Japan; it is difficult to make an exhaustive summary of his curriculum. He currently exhibits permanently at La Galería Arcadia in Madrid. In 2003 he was chosen by the Museo de la Real Casa de la Moneda to have one of his works issued on a postage stamp and to participate in the XXV anniversary exhibition of the Spanish Constitution. Meanwhile, the Museo de la Real Casa de la Moneda in Madrid has organized an exhibition of his works. Torner’s works have been shown in a large number of European and Spanish cities such as: Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Strasbourg, Saint Paul de Vence, Dijon, Clermont-Ferrand, Barcelona, Girona, Valencia, Seville, Pontevedra, Oviedo, etc. Below are some of the artist’s most important exhibitions: Most significant exhibitions Amics de les Arts. Terrassa - Barcelona. Pinacoteca. Sabadell - Barcelona. Société des Artistes Indépendants. Paris. Grand Palais. Paris. Dan Art, Béziers-France. Galerie Espace. Paris - Beaubourg. Lions Club. Chartres Doyen - France. Guest of honor at the exhibition of the Cercle Espanyol. Dreux - France. Salon d’Automne. Clermont-Ferrand - France. Grand Prix la Femme et l’Immobilière Jeanne Gatineau. Paris. Sala Gavina. Palamós - Girona. Sala Clará, Olot-Barcelona. Espai cultural Francolí-Barcelona. Galerie Boutique. Paris, France. La Galerie de l’Hôtel Méridien. Paris. L’Atelier. Platja d’Aro, Girona. Ausstellungsräume der Mineralquelle Eptigen. Switzerland. Galería Arcadia- Madrid. Galería de arte Star. Colectiva. Madrid. Galería 4 Cantons. Olot, Girona. Galería Catalonia-Barcelona. Galería Art 16. Olot, Girona. Pedreguet Art espai contemporani. Girona. Galería Da Vinci Art. Girona. Galerie Ducs de Dijon. France. Galería Campo u Campo. Belgium. Galería B.C.S. Estrasburgo. France. Haus Arnold. Frankfurt am Main. Germany. Haus Berlinghoff. Heidelberg. Germany. Naumilenium. Barcelona. L’art century art. Barcelona. Real Club Náutico de Sanxenxo. Pontevedra. Picassomio.com Madrid. Galeries d’Art Christian Dazy. Dijon-Megeve-France. Exposición Conmemorativa del 25 Aniversario de la Constitución Española. Madrid. Sala Constanti Art, Reus. Navidad group show, 2009-Tarragona.

Schätzpreis:€400

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