PARIS.- For the first time ever, an Art Exhibition will celebrate the Catalan band of brothers who a century ago changed the art world forever. Bound together by their shared Mediterranean background, their exile in Paris, and by their friendship, Picasso and his four friends built a legacy that side by side will stand together in the French capital this October. It is a long-awaited moment to savour their contribution to the world of art. The works on show are valued at approximately between €20,000 and €1,000,000
They had come to cold Paris, these brothers of the sun, seeking their own - artists like them - hoping to find fame and fortune. And a century later it is clear that they achieved all those aims and created art that made a significant impact on the world which is their legacy.
There is a powerful link between British and Catalans who fought alongside each other against the fascist Franco forces from 1936-39. Among the 4,000 Brits in the International Brigade the most famous was author George Orwell author of ‘1984’. The American writer Ernest Hemingway whose book ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ covered the war for NANA, The North American Newspapee Alliance. Hemingway knew Picasso from his Paris days.
Between the late 19th century and the mid-20th century, this group of Catalan sculptors with ties to Spain and France made a profound contribution to the renewal of modern European sculpture. Aristide Maillol, Manolo Hugué, Pablo Gargallo, Pablo Picasso, and Apel·les Fenosa were among them. Now works by these men who represent the ‘Catalan Genuis’ form an exhibition at Galerie Malaquais and Galerie Messine in Paris.
Beyond their exhibitions, these artists were united by personal and friendly relationships that were often deep. Picasso and Manolo Hugué maintained a lasting friendship, fueled by mutual admiration, dating back to their youth in Barcelona. Picasso and Gargallo also socialized in the early 20th century within Parisian avant-garde circles and shared a common interest in sculptural innovations. The relationship between Gargallo and Manolo was that of close friends, having known each other since their youth in Barcelona, and Gargallo often visited Manolo in Céret.
Maillol and Manolo maintained a close friendship; their geographical proximity in the south of France and their shared attachment to Mediterranean culture brought them closer together. As for the relationship between Maillol and Gargallo, it was based more on mutual appreciation than on genuine artistic collaboration.
Fenosa, for his part, met Picasso in 1923 and immediately benefited from his unwavering support and friendship: “I could write a book about Picasso’s kindness. He brought me into the world; I owe him everything” he said. Picasso affectionately called him “my son of an unknown mother.” Furthermore, we know from archival footage that Fenosa moved in the same circles as Manolo in Catalonia in the 1940s.
Jean-Baptiste Auffret, of Galerie Malaquais, comments: “It is a great privilege to bring together these historic and artistically important works, the product of five friends who formed a Catalan friendship clan in Paris. They are the very embodiment of 20th Century art. As you walk among these sculptures it dawns on you that collectively they form an ‘engine’ of sorts that moved and changed our world and the way we view it. They are objects that come out of a tradition as ancient as man – a link to the stone age hunter carving a human form from wood, ivory or stone. And one cannot overlook the world of the Mediterranean they emerged from, a world shared by Etruscan, Phoenician, Greek and Roman sculptors. Do not miss this exhibition, offering as it does something rare, historic, special and beautiful.”
