IN THE CORE OF ARTIGAS FAMILY
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Story about Artigas Fondation throughout the eyes of the Artigas Family.
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Openhouse magazine Issue Nº15
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Photographed by Marina Denisova
marina-denisova.comFundació Artigas
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Openhouse magazine Artigas
FUNDACIÓ
ARTIGAS
A small sign with the words “Camí de l’Església” [Church Way] marks the way to El Racó [The Corner], a country house located in Gallifa, a small village in the inland area of the province of Barcelona, where some of the most recognisable pieces in the history of twentieth-century painting and ceramics were created. Following the path, you can see through the leaves of the trees a wooden sign that reads “Fundación J. Llorens Artigas”, This is, the foundation created in 1989 by the sculptor Joan Gardy Artigas as a tribute to his father —Josep Llorens Artigas (b. Barcelona, 1892–1980), to acknowledge his work with ceramics as an artistic discipline while fostering education, culture and the arts.
Each new generation of this artistic family has built on and furthered the work of their predecessors. If you compare the biography of Josep Llorens Artigas with that of his son, Joan Gardy, it would seem that the latter is more of an alter ego than a son. Both were born in June, 44 years and two days apart; both worked at the Galerie Maeght; both lived in Paris; and both were drawn to Asian cultures and traditions. They also worked together on collaborations with a number of different artists, Miró being perhaps the one with whom they had the most in-depth collaboration, as if the three were part of one large family.
Isao Llorens is part of the third generation of the family devoted to art. He combines his work as director of the foundation with the creation of a body of work that includes paintings, tapestries and sculptures. He welcomes us at the door of the building designed by Bruce Graham, where the gallery, library, apartments for residents and studios are located. The mural by Frederic Amat, made with some 700 ceramic breasts studded over the façade, leads to the interconnected work spaces with large windows and balconies that seem to blend in with their natural setting. The Pits de Gallifa [breasts of Gallifa] are but one of many open-air works that fill this space, and were fired in one of the foundation's seven wood-fired kilns used for Goryeo ceramics – a type of seventeenth-century Korean pottery. These same kilns were used by Miró, Llorens Artigas and Joan Gardy Artigas to create the murals for the UNESCO headquarters in Paris (1955), Harvard University (1960) and the Guggenheim Museum in New York (1966), among others.
“At the age of 83, Joan Gardy Artigas exudes an exuberant enjoyment of life, together with the satisfaction of having lived life as he wanted. ‘I’ve had a very full life,’ he says with a smile. ”
This place forms a private and tranquil maze where the problems of the outside world seem to vanish completely. We follow the way of El Racó and arrive at the main house, the lake and the loft—a microcosm that is a fusion of Catalonia, Japan and the world, where we meet Joan and Mako Artigas. “Catalan, Spanish or English?” Joan asks kindly as he invites us in. The space is strikingly welcoming. Joan makes coffee and serves it in several cups that he sets on wooden saucers. Isao playfully chides him, “In a potter’s house—and there are wooden plates...” Their new home overlooking the lake is a loft located in the former studio where Josep Llorens and Joan Miró created the large-scale murals.
At the age of 83, Joan Gardy Artigas exudes an exuberant enjoyment of life, together with the satisfaction of having lived life as he wanted. “I've had a very full life,” he says with a smile. It was Artigas senior, Mako’s teacher at the Escola Massana art school in Barcelona, who introduced the couple sitting in front of me today. “I was going to Japan by the hands of Fundación March. She [Mako] was studying in Barcelona,” Joan explains. “In those days, it wasn’t easy to get to Japan,” Mako continues. So, she offered to help him and that was where they got married. Mako’s Japanese imprint can be felt in every detail of both the house and the foundation. The windows are in the style of shōji screens, the sliding panels that are so emblematic of Japan. She explains to us that they came from the house in which she grew up, like some of the other pieces of the furniture in the room, which she was able to salvage before the house was torn down. “This furniture must be over 150 years old,” she laughingly points out.
The gallery at the foundation houses an exhibition of work by Mako (b. Tokyo, 1937), who has recently begun to explore ceramics. She came to Spain at the age of 23 by ship, stopping off at different ports for a month. “I was at a convent school run by Spanish nuns, and I very much wanted to leave Japan because of the earthquakes, typhoons and other disasters. So, I thought that, with help from the nuns perhaps it would be easy to come to Spain: ‘I’m going to Spain and from there I’m going to Paris.’ But Joanet appeared and I stayed.” However, the couple did end up living between Paris and Barcelona, without missing their yearly visit to Japan, among other places. We go out into the garden to take photographs of the family. Charming, self-conscious and somewhat shy, Joan smiles and jokingly regrets not having a longer beard “which always gives a more interesting and more profound look”. Our conversation brings up names such as Picasso, Chagall, Braque and Giacometti, whom Joan met in Paris. All three recall Elsa Peretti, a figure closely associated with the foundation and a friend of the family (whose death has coincided with the writing of this article). They were part of a generation known as the Gauche Divine in the '60s and '70s. “We all went to Bocaccio,” Joan explains. The night club, located on Barcelona’s Carrer Muntaner between 1967 and 1985, was a meeting place for artists and intellectuals such as Oriol Maspons, Ricardo Bofill, Joan de Sagarra, Toni Miserachs, Óscar Tusquets and Colita.
While the most important figures on the Catalan arts scene frequented Bocaccio, the greats of the international scene, such as Barry Flanagan, Joan Mora, Antoni Tàpies and Sam Szafran among others, frequented El Racó. As our conversation progresses, I realise that it would be easier to list the people who have not visited this extraordinary place. The time has almost come to say goodbye, but, as is almost always the case, our words are flowing more easily now. “Are you from Bilbao? Frank Gehry —architect of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, came here, too.”