Valls, Xavier

"BIOGRAPHY OF XAVIER VALLS: Xavier Valls was born in Horta (Barcelona) in 1923, where he also died in 2006. He learned the pictorial technique with the Swiss Charles Collet, a friend of the family and who was his only teacher.

In 1949 he moved to Paris, where he met Tristán Tzara, Fernand Léger, Antonio Clavé and Alberto Giacometti. In this city he established his definitive residence, although he spent his summers in Barcelona, in his tower in Horta.

Originally interested in cubism, his work evolved towards constructivism, abstraction and, from the 1970s onwards, figurativism. Valls' work, full of landscapes, still lifes, views of Paris and portraits, is based on a realism nuanced by the technique of blurring and with clear influences of German romanticism.

Honorary member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Sant Jordi, in 1993 he was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts and in 2000 the National Prize for Plastic Arts granted by the Generalitat de Catalunya.

In 2003 Xavier Valls published a book of memoirs entitled "My Pandora's Box". Among the numerous exhibitions he has held are those at the Galería Theo in Madrid (1974), Galería Henriette Gomes (1979) and Galería Claude Bernard (1981) in Paris.

The Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA), the Museum of Contemporary Art of Lanzarote, the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid and the National Source of Contemporary Art in Paris, among others, have his work."