Pere Pruna

Pere Pruna Ocerans (Barcelona, 1904-1977) was a Catalan painter and illustrator of figurative style.

In 1920, with only 17 years and hardly any academic training, he traveled to Paris. Sebastian Sunyer provided him with a letter to introduce himself to Pablo Picasso, who was in his classicist time back to order, a style that Pruna will adopt in the future. Under the protection of Picasso, he was soon introduced into the intellectual and artistic circles of the Parisian avant-garde. In 1924 he exhibited with Apel·les Fenosa in the Percier gallery, prefacing the Max Jacob catalog. This stage was perhaps the most stimulating of his career and for it is encompassed in the so-called "School of Paris", having enjoyed esteem in the French capital thanks to his delicate painting, which connects very directly with the Picasso of the stage neoclassical He was also set designer and costume designer of the Ballets Russes de Sergéi Diágilev and in 1928 he obtained the 2nd prize of the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh.

Although Pere Pruna was the author of paintings such as Allegory of the Republic, at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the vision of the fires of churches and convents, without any respect for works of art that were destroyed indiscriminately, led him to enlist in the army Francoist Until then, he had exhibited successfully in Chicago, New York, Amsterdam, among other places. In 1936 and 1938 he did it at the Venice Biennale. After the war, again in Barcelona, he perpetuated his placid and refined style from the Sala Parés in Barcelona.

He painted murals and other large paintings with religious themes, staying true to his style, although, while making delicate nudes, he did experimental works with collages and introducing other elements; others dissociating the colors of the background with the figure sgraffito above. Perhaps its most original contribution is the use of virgin wax to perform carnations (but without following the usual encaustic technique).

The figuration of Pruna is characterized by its stylized and diaphanous line, and is in tune with the return to order after the break that the avant-gardes supposed. This makes it possible to compare his art with contemporary European trends, such as the Italian "plastic values" (Cabeza de playo y tulipán, 1929).