…he makes ceramics in accordance with his thought; he is the demiurge of the glazes. Unlike the Japanese ceramicist who always uses the same one, Artigas invents them constantly, their quality of color and texture. Doctor of Architecture since 2003, at the Universidad He always works with natural glazes and Politécnica de Madrid, with the doctoral thesis entitled with wood burning kilns he built himself. “Architectural space apprehended from the work of Mark Rothko”, supervised by Mr. Jesús Aparicio Guisado. Modifying the combinations and firing points Located in a professional studio since the year 2000, he has of the glazes, he was able to achieve an infinite developed his architectural work in the field of single family range of brilliance, color, transparency, and houses and apartment houses, and in the banking and health depth, along with other qualities. In his sectors. It is worth mentioning some interventions carried out for Ibercaja´s Charitable and Cultural Work, such as the Formulae and Practice of Ceramics he confesses: Cultural Centre “Ibercaja Zentrum” and the residential home The formulas in Ceramics are always living for the pensioner “Club 60+ Antonio Lasierra”, elements that you must watch over As a painter, it is remarkable the itinerant exhibition continuously, always attentive to their “Inhabiting the Colour” in the year 2007, in Zaragoza, Guadalajara and Logroño, a deep reflection on the ideas and transformations, adapting them to the needs foundation of monochrome painting. of the moment. Currently, he combines his job as an architect with that of a In 1955 unesco commissioned Miró to painter and with being an associate Professor of Architectural decorate two perpendicular walls, three meters Graphic Expression at the Universidad de Zaragoza high, 15 and 7.5 meters long respectively, situated next to the conference building of its The friendship between Joan Miró and Josep headquarters under construction in Paris. Llorens Artigas dates from their adolescence, At that stage of his pictorial life, Miró had when they coincided at the Gali Academy of transformed his dreamlike figures into symbolic Barcelona and at the Cercle artistic de Sant Lluc. ones. All the figures were situated on a single Later, when they were living in Paris, they plane, none was in front of another; in the areas shared a studio that Pablo Gargallo lent them of intersection, the lines composing the figures on the Rue Blomet. In 1942, while at an became transparent and the color in the area of exhibition of Artigas in Barcelona, Miró meeting changed. The forms or figures were suggested they work together for the first time, situated over a deep background that emphasized and he insisted on it for the next two years until the flatness of the forms still more. Often, Miró Artigas finally decided to give it a try. took advantage to clean his brushes when he was Miró was strongly attracted to the primitive painting the background. In that way, he brought and the ancestral. In his painting and in the way different mixed and very diluted colors into the he worked, there was something of a return to composition, forming a light and muted tonality the origin, often through the applied arts. It’s that helped to prompt the creative process. more than likely that a family influence is the Jacques Dupin describes what Miró achieved: cause of this, since his paternal grandfather was The substitution of the virgin canvas for a a blacksmith, his maternal grandfather was a living field, a vibrant space, gives the painter cabinetmaker, and his father a jeweler. At the the breath and the measure of breath that he’s same time, through painting and literature, he going to need, at the same time as the precise discovered the great Spanish mystics, Saint accommodation to liberate the form and Teresa and Saint John of the Cross. dominate its structure. For his part, Artigas was a craftsman who Miró had already confronted the challenge of worked earthenware ceramics creating painting a mural when he received the unesco universal forms. His son, who, as we will see commission. In 1947, through an American later on, participated actively in the creation of gallery owner, he made a mural measuring 2.5 the murals, explains this work in the following meters high and nearly 10 meters long for a manner:
AURELIO VALLESPÍN MUNIESA MIRÓ, ARTIGAS: THE CERAMIC MURAL FOR THE BARCELONA AIRPORT
127_ Aurelio Vallespín Miró, Artigas: the ceramic mural for the Barcelona Airport