Nicholas Socrates 2008

Joan Gardy-Artigas’ ‘The Fang’/ ‘Earth & Fire’ It’s absolutely magnificent! Strong and solid, Rooted in the ground, of its special grass plinth Its trunk is like the breast of a lion. Like a courageous dragon; so proud the peak turning into gold extremely rich and successful sleek and sexy very curvaceous like one big muscle ; a masculine sculpture reaching to the sky pointing up. To a sharp Intelligent point, makes you look up expanding the vision to the immense awareness this warrior in the world gives the public strength and courage to continue their lives with great dignity. A great role model, standing straight and true, Tall & Broad, with an expansive chest – and an open heart. This magnificent sculpture exists, in the area, out side the ‘Marie Christina’ Metro Station; Avinguda Diagonal 621, In the close vicinity is its cooperate owner La Caxia – Savings Bank; an awesome supermodern minimalistic building with reflective black cubic, glass. This sculpture is a part of the banks extensive collection of contemporary art urban. The sculpture and its surrounding architecture speak to each other, (to the La Caxia building in particular) – creating an absolutely wonderful urban environment. A very unique area of Barcelona. The sculpture stands at 13.70 metres pointing up to the sky, expanding the publics awareness. This ‘Untitled’ work, made from painted, gilded concrete, in 1983 is often refered to as ‘Earth and Fire’, also known as The Fang.

By, Joan Gardy-Artigas (Born 1938, Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris, France). The artistic name of Joan Llorens i Gardy, son of Josep Llorens i Artigas. Gained his experience in the circle surrounding Chagall, Braque and Giacometti in Paris. Most of his activity has taken place in that city, where he has had a studio since 1959. Like his father he has collaborated with Joan Miró on numerous projects, and has not only worked in ceramics but also on monumental sculptures in bronze and in plastic.

JOAN GARDY ARTIGAS (b. 1938) is a living embodiment of the modernist art movement. He is the son of Josep Llorens Artigas, Picasso’s and Miró’s favorite ceramicist, Artigas grew up surrounded by both the art and the artists who revolutionized twentieth-century art. At service as

Cuisse noire. Original color lithograph, 1966. 75 signed and numbered impressions published by Maeght Editeur in Paris. Image size: 400x365mm. Price: $500

Miró’s assistant, as a teenager, he left Spain several years later both to escape the oppressive Franco regime and to try and establish an independent artistic identity. After a period as a student at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, he became friends with the sculptor Alberto Glacometti and, opening a ceramics atelier in Paris, worked with Georges Braques and Marc Chagall. When his father became too frail to work, Miró called him back to Spain and they had a twenty-year working partnership - broken only by Miró’s declining health in 1981. The fruits of this partnership can be seen in the large ceramic murals and sculptures all over the world including ceramic murals for Harvard University, UNESCO (Paris), Fondation Maeght (St. Paul), the 1970 World’s Fair in Osaka, the Barcelona airport, the Kunsthaus in Zurich, the Haack Museum (Ludwigshafen), IBM Headquarters (Barcelona), and a 60-metre ceramic mural for the Palais des Expositions et des Congres de Madrid, He and Miró also collaborated on a 22-meter ceramic sculpture for a fountain in Barcelona. In addition to his work with Miró, Artigas has made a number of monumental public sculptures including a monumental work in Zurich, a large fountain for Vitry-sur-Seine, La Porta Blanca, an 8.5-meter cement and bronze sculpture for Chamonix, Forma de dona for Plateau d’Assy, Porta per una ciutat, an 11-meter scupture outside Barcelona, La porta de Franca, a 15-meter sculpture on the French side of the tunnel at Mont-Blanc, Terra I foc, this 15-meter work for "la Caixa," Barcelona, and works for Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, London, the Fonda Europa de Granollers, Barcelona, and the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró in Palma de Mallorca, and sculpture gardens in London and Tokyo. He also participated in several architectural projects with the firm of Skidmore Owings, and

Merrill, making ceramic floors and fountains in Atlanta, Chicago, Cairo, Egypt.

This public sculpture is by Joan Miró in collaboration with Gardy Artigas, in 1982. This 22 meters high, in the Parc Joan Miró, also called Parc de l'Escorxador, in Barcelona, Spain, is made from; concrete and covered in ceramic tiles styled by Artigas

Objet organique. Ceramic sculpture with acrylic paint, 1983. Executed while Artigas' was a visiting artist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison . Size: 415x620x260mm. Price: $7500.

Artigas began exhibiting his own smaller ceramic and bronze sculptures in France and Spain during the mid-1960s and began making lithographs and etchings in 1968. He has had a number of commissions for large public sculptures (in bronze, ceramics, and concrete) in Europe, Japan, and the U.S. and has had shows in many European, Japanese, and American galleries and museums, including The Meadows Museum of Spanish Art at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the Hispanic Institute in New York, and Galerie Lelong in Paris. A major retrospective of his works in all media was held at the Tecla Sala Centre Cultural in Barcelona in 1996 and a large exhibition documenting Miró’s collaborations with Josep Llorens Artigas and Joan Gardy Artigas was held at the Fundació Pilar I Joan Miró in Palma de Mallorca in 1998. Spaightwood Galleries gave him his first U.S. one-person show in 1982, and has included his work in shows almost every year since, with one-person shows usually every two to three years. He has been a visting artist at the UW—Madison, and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He serves on the board of the Fondation Miro in Barcelona and is Director of the Fundació Tallers Josep Llorens Artigas in Gallifa, Spain, which he created in 1989 in memory of his father and to provide a place where artists from all parts of the world come together to work for a period of up to six months.

“First, I believe that a person is an artist not necessarily by the grace of God—but, well yes . . . by genetics . . . by force of character. Then . . . given that anything is possible and that everything has already been done, that we have had a total liberty to create since Dada and Duchamp (there’s nothing left to destroy), that

the academy and academics are totally outdated . . . Then (given all this) . . . the artist has to choose [what] (a subject) and [how] (a technique).”

Sensuelles scories No. 5. Ceramic sculpture, 1981. Size: 250x340x150mm. Price: $5,500.

“It is rare to find great works in the history of art that do not have at their origin a profound motivation, be it religious, nationalistic, social, or even personal. In my case, the choice was made almost “automatically.” Not being a believer, God could not help me. Not having any particular political sympathies because I am too critical of all of them, I could not be nationalistic. The creative adventure, then, became for me one of eroticizing the world: this desire, nonetheless, attenuated by something I have inherited from my father and from Miró, a taste for work and the pleasure of the raw materials of my work.” “To speak or to do, the ephemeral or the concrete: there is not much to say but so much to do. I think that every work which has ever been created takes much greater effort to be destroyed. That is, after creation the work has its own life which totally escapes the artist, and . . . that is good because that is what permits him or her to advance, to progress. Using as a base a definite knowledge, a definite mastery of the métier, every creator must subvert the subject. It’s a matter of breaking the structure—but this is based on “ . . . ” When the surrealists speak about assassinating painting, it’s obvious that the “ . . . ” is the basis or point of departure for the assassination because their means of expression is painting or literature.” “For me, it is evident that you cannot do the game work, create the same piece twice with earth, stone, and bronze. Each materia, having its own characteristics, must be respected for its individuality.”

“When the concern is creating a sculpture for a specific location, it is obvious that the first thing to do is to study the site. An urban landscape, the open-air environment of the

Plaquette1. Ceramic sculpture with acrylic paint, 1983. Executed while Artigas was a visiting artist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison . Size: 280x400x18mm. Price: $2800

Objet charnel. Ceramic sculpture with acrylic paint, 1983. Executed while Artigas was a visiting artist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Size: 530x540x320mmmm. $7,500.

country, a highway, a huge space or a small one sets the conditions for the sculpture—both its dimensions and its form, even its color. The sculpture can be implanted by opposition to the environment as well as through integration with it. In fact, the location, the site, dictates at least 50% of what the work will be; but it is always, in the end, based on that “ . . . ” A “ . . . ” that, little by little, bit by bit, because of the work undertaken, grows and becomes richness itself.” In fact, all design involves preconceptions about the nature of the community in a broader sense, whether they are conscious or not. Experiential richness cannot be created by accident, or without a basic understanding of the sensibilities of those who will be using the space. The development of the aesthetic reality, which characterises contemporary architecture and industrial design, by means of individual self-expression or one’s inner spiritual self and creative imagination, inner resources and intuition are utilized as the base used when designing. This philosophy is closely linked to a number of artistic values found in movements like Expressionism and the Avant-garde movement. This design value is closely related to abstract forms and expression, personal creative liberty, elitism and being ahead of the rest of society. Expressionistic form, which can be found, to some extent in the “air” of a given time and each generation, should generate an aesthetic style that expresses the uniqueness related to that time. Every age has a certain spirit or set of shared attitudes that should be utilised when designing. The Spirit of the Times denotes the intellectual and cultural climate of a particular era, which can be linked to an experience of a certain worldview, sense of taste, collective consciousness and other-than-conscious greater awarenesses.