Apel.les Fenosa

Apel·les Fenosa was born in Barcelona in 1899, in a cultivated environment, Fenosa became a sculptor following a course that led him to work in the studio of sculptor Enrique Casanovas. He endorsed the ideas of modernism and rallied the group of evolutionists: Rebull, Granyer, Viladomat. Having sympathies for the anarchist cause, he refused military service and left for France in 1920, stopping briefly in Toulouse before moving to Paris in 1921. He quickly integrated into the artistic world and met Jules Supervielle, Max Jacob and especially Pablo Picasso. The latter encouraged him in the path of sculpture and bought him his first Parisian works. From then on, Fenosa exhibited both in Paris and Barcelona: in 1924, Max Jacob prefaced his first Parisian exhibition, as well as that of the Zborowski gallery in 1928. Fenosa was in Catalonia when in 1931 was proclaimed the Second Spanish Republic: he remains in Catalonia and, close to the anarchists, fights in the republican ranks during the Spanish Civil War. He participated in the Venice Biennale in 1936. When Francoism came to power in his country, he settled permanently in Paris. In 1942, he met Paul Éluard at Picasso's. Fenosa will have lunch for a long time several times a week with the painter and the poet. Éluard orders a bust of himself in lost wax, then another of his wife Nusch. He will dedicate to Fenosa a poem not included in the collection. In 1944, the Limousin Liberation Committee commissioned a sculpture from him commemorating the massacre of Oradour-sur-Glane: the Monument to the Martyrs of Oradour (1944-1945), first erected in Limoges then moved to Oradour. From 1946, he exhibited individually or collectively in Paris, London, Barcelona, Madrid, Prague, New York, Tokyo, Rabat, Osaka, Casablanca, Carrare. The greatest writers and poets of his time prefaced his personal exhibitions: Éluard, Cocteau, Supervielle, Ponge, Neruda, Cournot, Caillois, Espriu… In 1981, he produced the statuette L'Olivier on order from Unesco, which was to be the trophy awarded to the winners of the peace education prize awarded annually by Unesco. In 1982 he was awarded the gold medal of the Generalitat of Catalonia, the following year it was the French Legion of Honor, then, in 1987, the gold medal of the city of Barcelona. He died at his Parisian home on March 25, 1988.