Josep PLA-NARBONA (1928)

 Josep Pla-Narbona (Barcelona, 1928) is a graphic designer, draughtsman, printmaker, sculptor and Spanish painter. During his entire life has counted the graphic design with the art.

“Abisme de Llum”.

Oil on canvas. Published in the book “L Eros primary lòbra of Pla-Narbona”

Year:1983. Reference to the poem of Marius Torras “Abisme de Llum”.

Measures: 162 x 130 cm; 163 x 131 cm (frame).

In Sayad Folch i in Sergio Fernàndez have triat the poem “L abisme de llum”. Here Màrius Torres reflecteix the seva profunditat religious, not necessàriament lligada the catolicisme, but com quelcom transcendent. The beauty of the world, the nit, the mort i Déu són temes essencials of poetry torresiana.

L abisme de llum. Poem # 75 [December 1940]

Career as a designer

In 1961 he was a professor of Advertising Plastic arts of the Massana School of Barcelona. He contributed to the foundation of the first professional association in the state, graphic Designers Agrupación FAD (now ADG FAD) of which he was the first president. Similarly, he led the creation of the first prizes, introduced in Spain in order to recognize the creativity and the quality of the design chart to the one who baptized with the name LAUS (1964). It has been the first member of the Spanish state to be admitted to the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) and as the first president of the Spanish group since 1964 organized the first congress of AGI in Spain (Barcelona, 1971). With the AGI, Pla-Narbona has participated in exhibitions organized by the American Institute of Graphic Arts New York (1966), and the Lincoln Center in New York (1966), among others. He has published in prestigious journals of international design such as IDEA, U&LC, Print or Graphis. His designs have been exhibited in various countries and are present in various museums. Has graphic work in MoMA's collection since 1972. Currently lives near Barcelona and is dedicated mainly to painting. He has been awarded with a LAUS of honor of the ADG-FAD in 2000, with the Award of the Design of the Spanish Association of Design Professionals (AEDP) in 2001 and with the National Design Award in 2004 by its status as a pioneer in the promotion of design, as a creator and as a precursor of initiatives.

Creative work: art and Design

The stage of learning Their beginnings, as the children of the war, were marked by the difficulties of the time. Thanks to his gifts for drawing, he joined the graphic arts industry as an assistant lithography. He began his training in the school of Arts and Trades of Barcelona (1945-1948) and was started in the advertising work in 1946 as an apprentice of Josep Artigas. A year after he entered as an assistant in the workshop of the artist and painter Ricard Fabregas (1906-1947) who I admired for his artistic abilities as a cartoonist for advertising. To the premature death of the master, the Pla-Narbona inherited his portfolio of clients becoming professional. He worked in Paris from 1956 to 1958 to train as an advertising collaborating with Oleg Zinger, Lima de Freitas and Lluís Camps in the advertising firm R. L. Dupuy; In Paris, in addition to graphic trends international, became acquainted with the visual metaphors of surrealism that were used to express new concepts by great artists of the time. Also in the French capital was discovered to Sartre, and Unamuno, and his reading went up to be able to express a tragic sense of existence. This was manifested in many of his series of drawings and prints with subjects such as: the saltimbanqui, the walls or masks, are also present in their designs for pharmacy. When you return from Paris he learned the engraving techniques in the Conservatory of the Arts of the Book (Barcelona) Jaume Coscolla and Maria Josefa Colom. He expanded his studies of typography at the agency Adolf Wirz, Zurich (1962), where he also produced a few lithographs for the publishing house ARTA. On his return to Barcelona set up his own studio.

The consolidation as a designer and artist, The years between 1960 and 1975 were the best of his career as a designer and draftsman, allowing you to reach an international consolidation. A time dedicated to the research on the graphic design and its expressive resources. He was a pioneer of this discipline in Spain. His work has a great personality graphic sought intentionally, as it was intended to be recognized by your style. Pla-Narbona was devoted to the construction of his personality graph since I returned from Paris and he did this through media, such as illustration, pharmaceutical (Sandoz Laboratories, Laboratories Uriach), editorial illustration and poster social interest. The latter was the more efforts devoted to these years. His identity project for the company-devices, high-fidelity Industries COSMO is a flagship example and a pioneer in corporate identity in Spain. In terms of the graphical investigation, the ads in COSMO, as well as those designed for socks JORIGU, constitute a maximum exponent of surrealism, including photographic material. Also noteworthy is his use of black spots, by contrasts between form and figure, or with the qualities of material of the black by cutting or tearing papers. Example of this are posters such as: Flies, Ronda de Mort a Sinera, Holy Week. His work can be appreciated also in the headwaters of newspapers such as the missing Tele/eXpres, or on covers for publishers as important as the Destination or Alfaguara. He founded and directed the magazine Azimuth (1966) and has published several technical papers and theoretical. He has illustrated, among others, works of Espriu, Pedro Salinas, Cela and Damaso Alonso, and he did the scenography of The flies, Sartre (1968), directed by Ricard Salvat. In terms of drawing and printmaking, per year in 1964-66, developed its first stage fully personal, in that his figures are converted already in fantastic.

Maturity. The color to paint In the next stage (1967-69) the figure is deformed and becomes fragmented, the eroticism is more patent, and the composition becomes baroque (series Triumfalismes, 1969). During their stay in the united States in 1969 he exhibited at the Gallery, Terry Dintenfass, New York, and made a series of lithographs in San Francisco for Colectors Press. Later in 1972, exposed in Chicago prints and drawings. New basic elements are listed below: the walls that compartmentalize their fantastic beings and monstrous (series Critical of the hypocrisy, 1972). This is the moment when the figures merge with the landscape (Landscapes, anthropomorphic, 1972) and starts at the same time his activity as a sculptor, where you can give substance to the theme of the masks, which had already previously worked in two dimensions. In the mid-seventies started his career as a painter, giving prominence to the color, and with an important presence of strange beings. It is in recent years when the field, the flowers, the horizon or the clouds are incorporated to bring warmth and hope. From ideas of the poet Joan Brossa, and in collaboration with him, developed the design of the sculpture in the shape of a grasshopper (llagost) that culminates the facade of the building of the School of Aparejadores and Technical Architects of Barcelona (1993) and the sculpture in the form of tentetieso (1994) Tribute to the book of the Guild of Booksellers of Old Barcelona located on the Paseo de Gracia.

He has won several awards and has attended exhibitions in Europe and America. Individually has exhibited in Barcelona (1961, 1975, 1977, 1990 and 2002), Zurich (1964), New York (1969), The Hague (1972) and Chicago (1972), among others. Has works in the Baltimore Museum of Art, the National Museum of Warsaw and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Awards and distinctions

1954-1955: First prize of the poster contest "Golden Wedding" of the Caja de Pensiones para la Vejez y de Ahorros de Cataluña y Baleares.
1956: Prize of the poster Contest Fiestas de la Merced, Barcelona city Council.
1960: Sant Jordi Award for drawing. Artistic circle of Sant Lluc.
1961: Sant Jordi Award for painting. Artistic circle of Sant Lluc. / First prize in poster competition Nestlé La Lechera, a condensate of energy.
1962: Prize Delta de Plata ADI-FAD.
1964: First Spanish member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). First Prize poster competition Nestlé Only the best is good / First Prize in poster competition SONIMAG 2.
1965: First Prize in the poster competition SONIMAG 3.
1966: First Prize in the poster competition SONIMAG 4 / First Prize of the poster contest HOGARHOTEL 7 / First Prize poster in the 2nd International Biennial of Applied Arts in Punta del Este (Uruguay).
1970: Certificate of Excellence from the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA).
1973: Enter your artist's book Pla-Narbona, the determined and loyal (1971) with texts by dr. Domingo Garcia-Sabell, at the Museum of Modern Art New York (MoMA).
1976: First prize of the International Drawing Competition Ynglada-Guillot.
1988: honorary Award of the Art Directors Club in your 67h Annual Exhibition.
1990: Medal of the Foment de les Arts Decoratives of Barcelona for his career.
2000: LAUS Honor of the ADG-FAD / Participates in the exhibition Signs of the Century 100 years of Graphic Design in Spain at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia.
2001: Design Award 2001 of the Spanish Association of Design Professionals (AEPD).
2004: XIV National Design Award.

Bibliography

• Perucho, J. Pla-Narbona, In "Graphis", Vol 20, no. 116 (1964), 498-503
• Cid, F; Rof Horse,J; Espriu,S.: Dibuixos Pla Narbona, Free of Sinera, Barcelona,1968
• Cela, C. J. the Soul of an Artist, "Sandorama" 14 (1969), 26-29
• Ohchi, H. José Pla-Narbona, In "Idea",18 (1970), 26-33
• Stevens, C. Spain Pla-Narbona: A voyage of self-discovery, In Print, 24.II(1970), 42-49
• García-Sabell, Domingo. Pla-Narbona, the determined and loyal, Industries Cosmo SA, Barcelona 1971
• Fuster, J. Fifty drawings uneducated, commoners, burlesque and popular Pla-Narbona, Art Books, INA-1, Barcelona,1971
• Fontbona, Francesc and Miralles, Francesc: Chronic and work of the draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor Pla-Narbona, Curial, Barcelona,1973
• Fontbona, Francesc, Pla-Narbona, Josep. In Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana, vol II (1978), 650
• Rotzler, W., Garamond, J. N., Art et Graphisme, ABC: Zürich.(1983), 154-163. ISBN 3-85504-076-1
• Müller,M. The haunted world of José Pla-Narbona, In "Upper & Lower Case", Vol 13, no. 4 (1987), 38-46
• Rabat.E. The World of Masters. Josep Pla-Narbona, In "Idea", 10 nº228 (1991), 20-27
• Gottschall, And M. Typographic Communications Today. The MIT Press, Massachusetts (1989) pg 151, 156, 157. ISBN 0-262-07114-2
• Cid, F. Galeria d autoretrats of Pla-Narbona, Centre Telemàtic Editorial, Barcelona, 2003
• García-Sabell, D, and Oriol Pi de Cabanyes. L'univers Pla-Narbona. Dibuixos, pintures, gravats i escultures. Ed. The Cep i La Nansa, Vilanova i la Geltrú (2000), ISBN 84-85960-53-X
• Gil, E. “Pioneers of graphic design in Spain”, Barcelona: Index Book, 2007