Josep Icart

Josep Icart (1928-1985) was a painter from Tarragona, trained at the School-Workshop of Art of the Tarragona Provincial Council. He was highlighted especially for the close connection with his ideals and thoughts that accompanied him and characterized his very personal and very different work throughout the time.
== Life ==
Josep Icart i Espallargas, was born in Pla de la Seu in Tarragona on July 19, 1928. From childhood he showed a great predilection for painting and drawing. Icart was one of these artists from Tarragona who received his training at the School-Art Workshop of the Diputación, where years later he was also a teacher, as was his colleague Tomás Olivar. At only 15 years old in 1943 he obtained a scholarship from the Diputación. In its beginnings it was dedicated mainly to the decoration and the restoration, of which there was much demand, fruit of the destruction of the War. He travels on different occasions in order to get to know the past and present heritage, although he never had a fixed and concrete predilection. He won several medals in competitions and always stood out for an immovable personality that accompanied him all his life. He finally died in 1985 when he was about to inaugurate the "Tarragona Cultural Embassy in Barcelona", an exhibition of drawings and poems that would become a tribute to the artist.
== Style ==
In his early days, Icart was already great in the field of drawing and composition technique, in addition, he had a sixth sense in terms of color, but was skilled in execution, characterized by his smooth, intense brushstroke. which denoted a certain influence of the Catalan post-impressionist masters. However, he moved away from the formal and pure and sometimes misleading concept to decline to seemingly abstract compositions. In this sense, he set up a personal language “unique in the line of his time”, Medina de Vargas, R. Josep Icart (1928-1985) , Tarragona, Diputació de Tarragona: 2005 p.13 which made it impossible for his creativity to be accepted in Tarragona, where institutions and people were still educated under retrograde artistic paradigms that demanded works like before. The third stage, contextualized in the seventies is “rebellious, dark and tormented. Orogenic forms, like agitated caves, of a convulsive rhythm. ” Ibid p. 15 However, in recent years it has abandoned black and aggressive contrasts to make way for “a sinuous and autonomous line, which develops in space horizontally and in an increasingly mechanical, automatic way. , instinctive, with absolute freedom " Ivi p. 15 Now light and color become paramount, their intensity makes them spring as if a symphony of pastel tones invaded the painting approaching the viewer to the mysticism of infinity.
== Contests ==
* 1954: Second prize at the XII National Art Exhibition of San Sebastián
* 1955: Wins the first prize of the Provincial Art Exhibition of Tarragona and scholarship to further his studies in Madrid
* 1956: Receives the bronze medal of National Painting
* 1959: Prize of the National Exhibition of Art of San Sebastián
* 1974: Obtains the XX Tapiró d'Or Medal of the IV Biennial of the Diputació de Tarragona
* 1981: honorable mention in the XXIII Tapiró Medal of Painting
== Group exhibitions ==
* 1950: Exhibits with other colleagues at the School-Art Workshop in Tarragona.
* 1953: I Biennial Art Competition-Exhibition in Montblanc.
* 1953: I Provincial Art Contest-Exhibition. At the Reading Center of Reus.
* 1953: Josep Icart, Ignasi Mallol and Tomás Olivar exhibit at the Sala del Sindicat d'Iniciativa in Tarragona.
* 1954: XII National Art Exhibition of San Sebastián.
* 1955: II Provincial Art Contest-Exhibition at the Reading Center of Reus.
* 1956: III Provincial Art Contest-Exhibition in Reus.
* 1959: Exhibition of the Pere Johan Circle in the Sala del Sindicat d'Iniciativa, Tarragona.
* 1968: XVII Engraving Hall (Tribute to Goya). In the Exhibition Hall of the General Directorate of Fine Arts in Madrid.
* 1968: National Exhibition of Fine Arts. At the Palau del Retiro, Madrid.
* 1968: XVIII Salón de Grabado, in the Exhibition Hall of the General Directorate of Fine Arts, Madrid.
* 1970: National Exhibition of Contemporary Art.
* 1970-71: I Biennial Nacional de Pintura. Félix Adelantado Award, Zaragoza.
* 1971: II National Painting Biennial organized by the Bilbao Insurance Company in the hall of the Real Cercle Artístic, Barcelona.
* 1972: National Painting Contest: Asturian Landscape. Convened by the Instituto de Estudios Asturianos in Oviedo at the Palacio de Toreno.
* 1974: Contest IV National Biennial, XX Tapiró Medal, XVIII Julio antonio of painting and sculpture. In the Rotonda Exhibition Hall of the Hon. Tarragona Provincial Council.
* 1975: XIV International Painting Contest in the Cloister of Santo Domingo, organized by the City of Pollensa.
* 1976: National Painting Competition. Towns and landscapes of Spain. F. Estrada Saladich Cultural Foundation. At the Mundi Art Gallery, Barcelona.
* 1977: 2nd National Drawing Fair. At the Museum of Modern Art of Tarragona
* 1977: XVII Drawing and Painting Fair. Figueres
* 1978: XXXIX National Exhibition of Plastic Arts in Valdepeñas
* 1980: Trade Union Federation of Plastic Artists of Tarragona, at the Museum of Modern Art of Tarragona
* 1981: Contest XXIII Tapiró Medal of painting. XXI Julio Antonio Medal of Sculpture.
* 1982: VIII Painting Contest "Villa Almonacid de Zorita" in Guadalajara
* 1982: Exhibition of Plastic Arts of the Trade Union Federation of Plastic Artists of Catalonia at the Museum of Modern Art of Tarragona
* 1984: Tribute to Apel·les Fenosa. El Vendrell
* 1985: Artists in search of a spectator at the College of Architects of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.
* 1987: Anthological exhibition as a tribute to the Museum of Modern Art of Tarragona
== Individual Exhibitions ==
* 1971: Al Club Integral Mixto de Tarragona.
* 1981: At the Museum of Modern Art of Tarragona.
* 1982: "Mostra de Pintura de J. M. Icart" a Institut d'Estudis Vallencs, Valls.
* 1982: "Josep Icart", at the Cop d'Ull Art Gallery in Lleida.
* 1983: "Oils" at the Quattrocento Art Gallery in Tarragona.
* 1983: Exhibition of Drawings and Paintings, in the Exhibition Hall of the Tortosa Shopping Center.
* 1984: "The Desire of the Afternoon"; Exhibition of wax drawings with texts by Fransesc Valls, first exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art of Tarragona, and then at the Institut d’Estudis Vallencs (Valls).
* 1984: "Drawings with poems" at the Hotel Terminal, Barcelona.
* 1987: "Josep Icart. Tarragona 1928-1985". Exhibition-tribute to the Palau de la Diputació de Tarragona.
* 1988: "Icart. Painting from 1970-1975. Dark era", is exhibited in the Sala Miró of the Civil Government of Tarragona.
He is known to have had several offers to exhibit in Germany and the United States, also to design theater sets in France or to teach at University of Mexico. But, according to his scholar Raquel Medina, Josep Icart was always a very familiar and introverted man, not very expert in public relations.
== Arts and Crafts ==
Icart was also an expert in the applied arts "making the ideal of Arts & Crafts, the Bauhaus or Catalan modernism itself natural" Medina de Vargas, Raquel, Josep Icart (1928- 1985) , Tarragona, Diputació de Tarragona: 2005 pp. 12 He oscillated between the beauty of the craft, and the old craft, as his work as a decorator and restorer was extensive, especially with regard to the city of Tarragona, where he carried out the global restoration of the Casa Castellarnau, the Casa Tutelar de Sant Josep or the ermita de la Salut.
== Bibliography ==
* Medina de Vargas, R, Josep Icart (1928-1985) Tarragona: Diputació de Tarragona, 2005
* Salcedo, A L'art del S. XX a les comarques de TarragonaTarragona: Diputació de Tarragona, Ajuntament de Tarragona i Arola Editors, 2001
Category: Painters
Category: Contemporary Catalan Painters