CASIMIRO MARTÍNEZ TARRASSÓ (Barcelona, 1898 - 1980)."Cala Lluch Alcari", Majorca.Oil on canvas.

CASIMIRO MARTÍNEZ TARRASSÓ (Barcelona, 1898 - 1980).
"Cala Lluch Alcari", Majorca.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower area. Signed and titled on the back.
Measurements: 92 x 73 cm; 107 x 90 cm (frame).
In this canvas Tarrassó depicts a landscape constructed in depth with his personal language based on colour stains of Fauvist heritage. Thus, in the foreground he depicts a village dotted with little white houses, which guide our gaze towards a coastal nook in intense turquoise blue, after which the chromatic planes follow one after the other until we reach the background, enclosed by green tones. The vivid chromaticism is the result of a careful and thoughtful study, based on the juxtaposition of mainly cold tones, some brighter and others darker, to reinforce the three-dimensional construction of the space.
Known simply as Tarrassó, he trained at the Escuela de La Lonja in Barcelona. He completed his studies in Paris, where he had first-hand knowledge of the Fauvist works that were shaking the Parisian artistic scene at the time. He was above all a brilliant landscape painter, with a style characterised by its violent, vivid and very luminous colours. He followed in the footsteps of the great Catalan landscape painters, particularly Joaquín Mir, although with a clearly differentiated personality due in part to the impact Fauvism had on his artistic thinking. He cultivated still lifes and Catalan and Mallorcan landscapes. He held his first exhibition in 1928 at the Galerías Layetanas in Barcelona. From then on he held exhibitions in Barcelona, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca and Bilbao. In 1935 he visited Mallorca for the first time, and from 1940 onwards he had a studio there, specifically in Palma, where he lived for long periods and where he developed most of his artistic production. After the Civil War, during the 1940s, Tarrassó took part in several National Fine Arts Exhibitions in 1942, 1943 and 1950, and held a number of personal exhibitions in Barcelona, in galleries such as Augusta, Layetanas, Ars, etc., among them the one he held of Pyrenean landscapes in 1948, and the one of large canvases of Mallorcan landscapes that he presented in 1949. Although landscape was always the focus of his production, Tarrassó also produced works such as the mural decoration of the church of Santa Maria in Badalona. He also undertook a singular undertaking in Mallorca, setting up his easel in the Campanet Caves to capture the stalactites and stalagmites of its stony cavities, developing a series of works that he presented at the Galerías Costa in Palma in October 1948. Throughout his career Tarrassó was awarded the Pollença Prize at the 1st International Painting Competition in 1962; the Santiago Rusiñol Prize in 1972; and the medals obtained at various editions of the Salones de Otoño (Autumn Salons) in Palma de Mallorca: first prize in 1967 and 1973, and the medal of honour in 1970. Tarrassó's work is characterised by the great personality of his colouring. His obsession for chromatism determines a profoundly sensorial, vitalist and intuitive painting. He is represented in various national and international private collections, as well as in the Museum and Artistic Fund of Porreras (Mallorca) and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Palma.