An atypical and avant-garde artist, he worked apart from the official artistic world and with numerous appearances in group exhibitions. He developed his work within different “isms” without being forced to join any specific movement. It synthesizes various avant-gardes, from cubist language to constructivist, futurist, superrealism and geometric abstraction.

His main references were the metaphysical painting of Giorgio de Chirico and Torres-Garcia. He made his most important contributions in the metaphysical realm – so little cultivated in Catalonia – with everyday scenes of families, workers, walkers and office workers, with naïve elements. He was 82 years old when he had his first solo exhibition, in 1985, with two retrospectives in Barcelona and Madrid, consolidating his peculiar painting within modernity and avant-gardes in Catalonia.

Oil on canvas

46x55 cm

Joan Sandalinas, 1889 - 1967