Il·luminacions. Catalunya visionària

A journey through the thinking and creation in Catalunya, from Ramon Llull’s time until nowadays, with a vast presence of visionary artists and creators, is what the exhibit is about.

It is organized in thirteen different theme fields and J. V. Foix, among other artists, plays a part in the so-called AURAE. Metaphysical landscapes field. The metamorphic rocks from the Cap de Creus were photographed by Man Ray and made up in his poems of stone by J. V. Foix, from which two samples can be seen.

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La pell de la pell – La Torre Vella de Salou

Last Friday the 30th of May, the hall in the Salou Town Hall’s Torre Vella hosted the opening of the exhibition La Pell de la pell. Joan Ponç – J.V. Foix created by the Museum of Rural Life and the Associació Joan Ponç.

The show exhibits the etches by Joan Ponç and the texts by J.V. Foix included in the volume La pell de la pell. The bibliophile volume La pell de la pell was published in 1970 by Polígrafa, and it contains 22 etchings by painter Joan Ponç and a text by poet J.V. Foix. This work is of twofold interest: first, because it is a streamlined example of this artist’s vernacular, and secondly because it sheds light on the artist’s re-encounter with Foix, a poet with whom he had close ties at the start of his career.

This series of etchings allows us a glimpse into Ponç’s complex graphic universe, an intricate world often dominated by the horror of a vacuum that he pushes to the last corner of the canvas and paper. In contrast, in La pell de la pell he clearly reveals the crux of his concerns: the human figure. Ponç does not portray the human figure with a realistic volume, rather he takes it to the limit of terrible horror and grotesque laughter. Hands, heads, feet, eyes, ears and arms betray the gifted presence of a body that the artist hides from us. These members hark back to the votive offerings we can find in the chapels of some churches, objects that are at once an offering and a plea, fragments that show at once pain and hope.

Ponç requires us to pay attention to a specific part of the human body; he traces a tour through human geography with stops at the points he regards as key: the hands, eyes and head. Hands that try to reach the unreachable, just as the painter with his brushes, pencils and burins tries to reveal what is hidden behind the appearances of things. Eyes that try to see beyond the appearance of the skin and stir up its essence. Heads that open up to capture what cannot be trapped with the senses.

Foix described Ponç as a “laborious artistic investigator”, and he was not wrong. Engraving, painting and drawing were his tools for reflection. The difficult decade of the 1940s witnessed the birth of the relationship between the poet and the painter, a relationship that over the years grew closer and bore outstanding fruit. To Ponç, Foix was the gateway to the literary and artistic world that connected with the European avant-gardes so far away from post-war Catalonia. La pell de la pell is a display of the close ties woven between two creators from different generations who, though working with different materials, shared the same way of understanding creation. Discovery and invention, investigation and imagination: these are the principles that define the creative process of Foix’s poetry and Ponç’s painting.

Joan Ponç was born in Barcelona in 1927. He studied painting with the master Ramon Rogent. In 1948 he founded the magazine Dau al Set along with Joan Brossa, Modest Cuixart, Arnau Puig, Joan-Josep Tharrats and Antoni Tàpies, which marked the resurgence of the creative impulse in the decaying post-war Barcelona. Discontented with the Catalan artistic circles, in 1953 he moved to Brazil. He set up house in São Paulo, where his painting became even more hermetic and streamlined. He returned to Catalonia in 1962 and set up his residence in Cadaqués. From then on his works were a constant fixture on the national and international art circuits, and he won accolades from both the public and critics. He died in 1984 in his house in Saint Paul de Vence (France). The perspective lent by time only underscores the importance and exceptionality of Ponç’s oeuvre, as well as the intensity of his voice and the need to rediscover his works.

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La pell de la pell – Espai Betúlia

From December 2007 until Frebuary 2008 Espai Betúlia introduces the graphic and poetic exhibition titled La pell de la pell, sponsored by the Fundació Lluís Carulla with the collaboration of the Fundació J.V. Foix and the Associació Joan Ponç, that shows the etchings by Joan Ponç and the text that J.V. Foix wrote for the artist.

Exhibition La pell de la pell – Espai Betúlia

Foix – Ponç Exhibition Espai Betúlia

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Frankfurt Book Fair

In 2007 the Fundació J.V. Foix participated in the Frankfurt Book Fair with the loan of the artist’s work Quatre colors aparien el món, a set of four texts by J. V. Foix accompanied by five drawings by Joan Miró, in addition to several photographs belonging to the Foundation’s collection and a number of first editions of books.

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La pell de la pell – Fundació Palau

The Fundació Palau evokes the relationship between artist Joan Ponç and poet J.V. Foix in the exhibition entitled La pell de la pell, which also features the works and documents of Joan Ponç from the Fundació Palau collection.

Opening: 2007/11/25

On Sunday the 23rd of September at 12:30 pm, the Fundació Palau will host the opening of the exhibition “Joan Ponç – J. V. Foix La pell de la pell”.

This exhibition, which will remain open until the 25th of November, includes the etchings by Joan Ponç and the text by J.V. Foix from the volume La pell de la pell, in addition to Ponç’s engravings and drawings and other of the artist’s documents from the Fundació Palau collection.

The bibliophile volume La pell de la pell was published in 1970 by Polígrafa, and it contains 22 etchings by painter Joan Ponç and a text by poet J.V. Foix. This work is of twofold interest: first, because it is a streamlined example of this artist’s vernacular, and secondly because it sheds light on the artist’s re-encounter with Foix, a poet with whom he had close ties at the start of his career.

This series of etchings allows us a glimpse into Ponç’s complex graphic universe, an intricate world often dominated by the horror of a vacuum that he pushes to the last corner of the canvas and paper. In contrast, in La pell de la pell he clearly reveals the crux of his concerns: the human figure. Ponç does not portray the human figure with a realistic volume, rather he takes it to the limit of terrible horror and grotesque laughter. Hands, heads, feet, eyes, ears and arms betray the gifted presence of a body that the artist hides from us. These members hark back to the votive offerings we can find in the chapels of some churches, objects that are at once an offering and a plea, fragments that show at once pain and hope.

Ponç requires us to pay attention to a specific part of the human body; he traces a tour through human geography with stops at the points he regards as key: the hands, eyes and head. Hands that try to reach the unreachable, just as the painter with his brushes, pencils and burins tries to reveal what is hidden behind the appearances of things. Eyes that try to see beyond the appearance of the skin and stir up its essence. Heads that open up to capture what cannot be trapped with the senses.

Foix described Ponç as a “laborious artistic investigator”, and he was not wrong. Engraving, painting and drawing were his tools for reflection. The difficult decade of the 1940s witnessed the birth of the relationship between the poet and the painter, a relationship that over the years grew closer and bore outstanding fruit. To Ponç, Foix was the gateway to the literary and artistic world that connected with the European avant-gardes so far away from post-war Catalonia. La pell de la pell is a display of the close ties woven between two creators from different generations who, though working with different materials, shared the same way of understanding creation. Discovery and invention, investigation and imagination: these are the principles that define the creative process of Foix’s poetry and Ponç’s painting.

The show is rounded off with a selection of documents on the artist (catalogues, editions, etc.), photographs of Ponç by different authors, as well as the screening of an interview with the artist and poet Joan Brossa.

In addition to the etchings exhibited, this time Ponç’s works from the Fundació Palau collection will also be on display, as well as dedicated drawings and a letter written by hand from the artist to Josep Palau i Fabre, a testimony to the friendship between the poet and artist. The foundation’s works include drawings and engravings that have never before been displayed. The show will also include other works by the artist from private collections that have been lent to the Fundació Palau for this exhibition.

The exhibition is being supported by the Fundació Lluís Carulla, the Associació Joan Ponç and the Fundació J.V. Foix.

La pell de la pell exhibition – Fundació Palau

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La pell de la pell – Societat l’Amistat de Cadaqués

La Societat l’Amistat, the Plataforma Joan Ponç and the Fundació Lluís Carulla invite you to the opening of the exhibition “Joan Ponç-J.V. Foix. LA PELL DE LA PELL“. The opening will be on the 3rd of August 2007 at 7 pm at the l’Amistat of Cadaqués, and it will feature participation by Jordi Carulla-Ruiz, member of the Plataforma Joan Ponç, and Sol Enjuanes, curator of the exhibition.

The show includes the etchings by Joan Ponç and the texts by J. V. Foix include in La Pell de la Pell, a bibliophile edition published in 1970. Plus, photographs and a documentary of Joan Ponç’s sojourn in Cadaqués will also be on display.

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La pell de la pell – Museu de la vida rural

The Museu de la Vidal Rural from l’Espluga de Francolí shows these days the exhibition La pell de la pell. The exhibition that is dedicated to Joan Ponç and J.V. Foix, will be opened till the 1st May, and shows the etchings by the painter and the text by the poet included in the book La pell de la pell.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Fundació Lluís Carulla.

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Exhibition “Poemes de pedra”

In December 2006 the exhibition entitled “Els poemes de pedra de J.V. Foix” opened at the University of Lleida. A catalogue of the exhibition, Poemes de pedra, supervised by Joan R. Veny-Mesquida and featuring photographs by Lourdes Jansana, an introduction by Joaquim Molas and an exhaustive study by Ramon Salvo Torres is being published by Punctum and Aula Màrius Torres.

From the 4th to the 31st of December 2006
Monday 4th of December 8 pm
Headquarters of the Departament of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Opening of the exhibition entitled J.V.Foix: poemes de pedra , organised by the Aula Màrius Torres of the University of Lleida, which will be open until the 31st of December.

The importance of this exhibition, which will be open from the 4th to the 31st of December 2006, lies in several factors, primarily the fact that it brings together all of J.V. Foix’s stone poems for the first time: the 19 that are currently housed at the Foundation named after him, along with the five that we knew had been left in the possession of some of his good friends.

In total, then, it displays 24 stone poems that at some point made up the poet’s private collection. Because of their provenance and meaning, which are similar to the stone poems, the six objets trouvés that the poet collected and kept have also been included in the exhibit. They are also currently in the collection of the Fundació J.V. Foix. All of these creative works – the last unpublished works by Foix – are presented contextualised with graphic materials (photographs), bibliographic materials (autographs and first editions) and sound materials (texts recited by the poet himself).

Further information:

Exhibition poster
Teaching ideas
Exhibition book
Exhibition brochure
Invitation to the exhibition
Ressenyes i comentaris

Exhibition Poemes de pedra

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