~ Blog of an Art Admirer

Friday

Carlos Nadal (1917-1998) Spanish Expressionist Artist

Painting by Spanish Expressionist Artist Carlos Nadal

Cote d'Azur, Regata

Carlos Nadal was born in Paris to Catalan parents. Nadal's father ran a shop of decorative arts, making posters
and theatre backdrops, which was a very profitable business in the 1920s. His parents returned to Barcelona in 1921. Young Carlos enrolled at the School of Arts and Crafts in Barcelona at the age of 13 and later became a student of the Senior Fine Art Academy of St George there.

Still Life

He was conscripted into the Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and in 3 years he was captured and interred at the concentration camp at St Cyprien, where he spent 5 months. Carlos escaped from the camp and returned to Barcelona. He continued his art studies and in 1941 Nadal had his first one-man exhibition. In the mid 1940s he returned to Paris. The artist was given a scholarship from Barcelona Council and later a grant from the French Ministry of Culture.

The Banks of the Garonne

He lived in Montparnasse where he met Picasso, Braque, Utrillo, Dufy. Nadal often visited Braque's studio. In 1949 Nadal was offered a US scholarship by the Carnegie Foundation, but he chose to marry his girlfriend Flore Joris, a sculptor, and they went to Brussels, where Nadal took up a contract work.
In the 1960s the artist was in great demand throughout Europe. He built his own studio and summer house near Barcelona.
check out also:
Joan Abello Spanish Artist
Maurice Empi French Artist

Concert

Nadal's work at first appears to be naive, almost childlike. However, it is difficult not to turn and sup the extravagant wild colours, bold lines and strange perspective.
Carlos Nadal was the last wild expressionist of Spain and perhaps one of the last artists with direct connections to the original group of Fauvist painters.
John Duncalfe