JAIME BARTOLOMÉ BALBÁS (Astillero-Santander  04-04-1927 – Barcelona 20-10-2009) Spanish painter

 

BIOGRAPHY

Jaime Bartolomé Balbás was born in Astillero (Santander), Spain. When he was 3 years old, he and his family moved to Barcelona, where they get used to the Catalan Society very quickly.
On 27th December of 1950, he gets married to Rosa Huguet Mateo and they have 3 children: Jaume, Montserrat and Francesc Xavier.
After moving to Barcelona, when he was young, he started his studies in Escuela de Artes y Oficios (Llotja), where he became disciple of Francesc Labarta. In 1954, he started spreading his work in international exhibitions, as in Salón de Mayo de Barcelona or exhibitions of Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc. In 1958, he did his first own exhibition and it would be the first of many of them. In 1962, he cofounded the grup “Krit”. In the following years he did many exhibitions around the world with “Krit”.
After a long disease, he died in 20th October of 2009 in Barcelona, where he lived all his live.

WORK

Painting
Even though he was a prolific painter, it is difficult to calculate the number of his total works as there is no work registration. All his works after 1961, when he turned into the abstractionism, were titled as Inclinadas including the number of the year and series. Each series contained 10 works and there could be within 3 or 4 series per year. At that time, he used to travel to Paris, where a merchant published his work in France. In the 70’s, Italy became his main market and he used to travel especially to Milan. In Italy he found his main mentor and merchant, Enzo Pagani, who organized his exhibitions in Italy and acquired all his works.

His initial work
He focused on figuration tending to the expressionism. His female figures made an era and his landscapes allowed him to discover the volume and triangular shapes. In this stage, he was awarded by prizes and distinctions.

Further work (The Change)
From 1961, he was concentrated in his studio in Barcelona, with no telephone and no distractions, and he started creating his own visual language. It was intimate, made of delicacy and it evolved towards an abstractionism of shapes, colours and lines. It was far away from the visual references of the real world, starting from the volume, from the angle and using color as an element of volume.

Sculpture and Ceramics
Sculpture and Ceramics were rather a hobby within his artistic career with a limited production and never commercialized.

EXHIBITIONS

Personals:

Barcelona:
- Asociación de la Prensa 1958
- Cercle Artistic de Sant Lluc 1962
- Centro Informativo de la Construcción 1964
- Galería Belarte 1965
- Ateneo de Barcelona 1969
- Sala Arcs (Caja de Barcelona) 1985

Bilbao:
- Sala Mikeldi 1966

Madrid:
- Sala Ebusus 1967

Palma de Mallorca:
-Sala “El Rincón del Artísta” 1967

Milan:
-Galería Pagani 1974
Sant Feliu de Guixols (Girona):
-Sala Caja de Barcelona 1986
Sant Cugat del Vallés (Barcelona):
- Canals Galería D’Art 1987

In Group:

From 1962 to 1965 with “KRIT”group in:
Munich, Messina, Hong Kong, Gotemburgo, Estocolmo, Mataró, Sitges and Barcelona.

From 1966 to 1972:
Madrid, Nueva York, Ginebra, Berlín, Palma de Mallorca, Benidorm and Barcelona.

Collective exhibitions:

From 1954, he participated in several national and international exhibitions.
In September 1987, he participated in the 7th Contemporary Spanish Masters that was held Soho, New York.
In the following year, in June of 1988 he was part of the Spanish Art 4, celebrated in San Francisco.

AWARDS

- Award of Asociación de la Prensa de Barcelona, (1st Award) 1958.
- “Accesit” in Exposición en el Círculo Artístico “Sant Lluc”, Barcelona 1960.
-“Honorable mention “ in Círculo Artístico “Sant Lluc” 1961.
-Bolsa de Viaje en Cercle Artistic de Sant Lluc de Barcelona 1961
- Award of Asociación Nacional de dibujantes (Christmas competition), Barcelona 1964.
-“Silver Medal” in Grand Prix de peinture of New York, in Nice 1970.
-“Especial Mention” in V Premio Ciudad de Hospitalet (España) 1970
-“Hononary Merit Diploma” in VII Grand Prix de pinture in Niza, 1970. –
-2nd Award in 5ème Grand Prix de Pacques en Niza 1971
-“Golden Medal” in Grand Prix de peinture of New York, 1971.
-“ Golden Medal” in Grand Prix de peinture of Nice (France), 1971.
-“Especial Mention” in Grand Prix de Peinture du Festival de Cannes
-2nd Award in 6ème Grand Prix de Pacques, Nice (France),1972
-“Especial Mention” in Grand Prix de peinture du Festival de Cannes, 1972.

MUSEUMS CONTAINING HIS WORKS

-Museo de Arte Moderno in Barcelona
-Museo de la Ciudad de Hospitalet (Barcelona)
-Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Ibiza
-Museo Estrada Esplugas in Llobregat
-Fundación Pagani (Milán)
-Museum Of Contemporary Hispanic Art Of San Francisco (California).

 

BIG WALL PAINTING

Big Wall Painting of 56 square meters in Meridiana (Barcelona), 1970.