Inauguration of Casas Anfruns ( February 8th 2013)

The opening of the exhibition “Casas Anfruns, Gaudí and the world” is starting. The artist addresses the attendees and thanks them very much for their attendance. “It is not easy for people to devote their time to the openings, and the fact of being so well accompanied today fills me with happiness”. The painter takes us on a tour through the topics of his works, where cities are the protagonists, especially Barcelona and Gaudí.

The manager of the gallery highlights the great sensitivity of the artist and says that this is the fourth time that Casas Anfruns is exhibiting at the Rusiñol Gallery. “In his works, the city of Barcelona has always had a special relevance. On this occasion the painter opens himself to the world, expands issues and the ways of expressing them. For these reasons I recommend you look at them in a leisurely way”.

Ignasi Cabanas would like to excuse the absence of Mr. Josep M. Cadena. Due unforeseen circumstances our art critic could not be present today. At this moment Cabanas is beginning the reading of an excerpt from Mr. Cadena’s article “The intimate and global sense of Gaudí at the Casas Anfruns’ work”. This writing describes the path of Casas Anfruns and the genius of the architect Gaudí.

The commentary has ended. Cabanas and the artist are remembering an anecdote that happened some time ago on the emblematic mountain Pedraforca. It seems that the painter invited Cabanas to climb this mountain, but the descent was so difficult for Ignasi and that he needed the help of Casas Anfruns. “It ended well, and I have achieved my goal of reaching the Pedraforca”, says Cabanas.

As usual at the Rusiñol Gallery, the attendees are placing questions to the artist. Thanks to his responses, we now know that Casas Anfruns has been painting all through his life “I have been painting all my life. My mother, when realizing I did it quite well since I was five years old, she used to buy my painting tools”. And also: that before the 90s, after selling a picture of the “Pedrera” to the owner of one art gallery of Barcelona, this man encouraged our artist to paint over Gaudi’s work, even though Casas Anfruns was already a man in love with Gaudi’s work: “I consider Gaudí as the most important Catalan person ever ” he said.