I visited Barcelona for the first time in the early 1970s, just after Franco died. This seemed to be a city on the edge of revolution. The streets were patrolled by menacing squads of the Policia Armada, dressed in well-cut gray suits and lemon yellow cravats. Each night, some would station themselves on the Ramblas, while the surrounding population jeered at them by voice and car horn. They could do so without fear because the old murderous order established by Franco was disappearing with astonishing speed, and the Policia Armada consequently no longer signalled fear. Street signs in Castillian Spanish were being replaced by Catalan. Calles were becoming Carrers. Around every corner in the Gothic Quarter there were headquarters of various short-lived Marxist and anarchist parties, each with a large red flag over the doorway. There were vast left-wing marches down the Passeig de Gracìa. The cinemas were full of pornographic films, mainly variations on Emanuelle. The whole city exuded excitement - Catalonia and Spain had awoke from their long coma, and were joining the world.
I was aware that my family had come from this city, but it never occurred to me to seek out a relative. And so I missed meeting the greatest person to bear my family name: the ceramicist Antoni Cumella. He was born in 1913 in the town of Granollers near Barcelona, and died in 1985. Antoni’s stepfather was a potter, and so he followed in the family business. But he was greatly influenced by Mies van der Rohe’s German Pavilion in the 1929 Barcelona Exposition, and began making ceramics as art. He was a medical officer with the Republican Army in the Civil War, and was imprisoned at its end. After his release in 1940, he exhibited his work internationally, achieving great success in Germany, where he had a joint exhibition with Marc Chagall. Antoni Cumella is famous in his home town, where the local high school (IES) is named after him.
The last time I went to Barcelona, I made up somewhat for my earlier ignorance. I visited the Royal Palace Museum, which has a museum of ceramic art and half a room is dedicated to the work of Antoni Cumella. His work demonstrates wonderful shape and colour, ranging from objects that are of recognisable form, to abstract ceramic sculpture. The pictures show some examples from the wide range of distinctive artforms that he created.
This raises the question for me of why sculpture is regarded by art critics as a kind of high art, while ceramics is seen as a craft. Both require great skill, and the ability to work in shapes and forms, but ceramic art adds colour.
After I returned from Barcelona, I learnt (from Google) that Antoni Cumella’s work is continued by his sons, still in Granollers, at Ceràmica Cumella. So that’s the destination for my next trip.
More details are at this website:
www.antonicumella.org
I was aware that my family had come from this city, but it never occurred to me to seek out a relative. And so I missed meeting the greatest person to bear my family name: the ceramicist Antoni Cumella. He was born in 1913 in the town of Granollers near Barcelona, and died in 1985. Antoni’s stepfather was a potter, and so he followed in the family business. But he was greatly influenced by Mies van der Rohe’s German Pavilion in the 1929 Barcelona Exposition, and began making ceramics as art. He was a medical officer with the Republican Army in the Civil War, and was imprisoned at its end. After his release in 1940, he exhibited his work internationally, achieving great success in Germany, where he had a joint exhibition with Marc Chagall. Antoni Cumella is famous in his home town, where the local high school (IES) is named after him.
The last time I went to Barcelona, I made up somewhat for my earlier ignorance. I visited the Royal Palace Museum, which has a museum of ceramic art and half a room is dedicated to the work of Antoni Cumella. His work demonstrates wonderful shape and colour, ranging from objects that are of recognisable form, to abstract ceramic sculpture. The pictures show some examples from the wide range of distinctive artforms that he created.
This raises the question for me of why sculpture is regarded by art critics as a kind of high art, while ceramics is seen as a craft. Both require great skill, and the ability to work in shapes and forms, but ceramic art adds colour.
After I returned from Barcelona, I learnt (from Google) that Antoni Cumella’s work is continued by his sons, still in Granollers, at Ceràmica Cumella. So that’s the destination for my next trip.
More details are at this website:
www.antonicumella.org
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