TERRASSA, 1928 -2020 Tarrés Féniz

His still lifes are color studies. Each one different: studies on copper, on fruits, on ceramics, on reflections…

Joan Tarrés Féniz was born on June 2, 1928 in Terrassa, being the eldest of three brothers. Since he was little he liked it, he was quite good at it, both in practicing sports and in the artistic aspect.  For his father, painting was understood as a hobby, but not as a job for a living… so at the age of 14 he started working in metallurgy. The days passed between work, practicing sports, specifically roller hockey, and studying remotely to become a Mechanical Technical Director – Designer Draftsman, a fact that gave him the opportunity to learn in depth about linear and geometric drawing.  Once he began his life as a couple, he began to study his passion at night (1st year 1958-1959), at the Municipal School of Arts and Crafts of Terrassa, having Josep Rigol i Fornaguera (1897-1986) as a teacher and example. He studied the branches of drawing, painting, sculpture, etching and engraving, combining it with work and family, already increased by his three children.

The theme of his work is still lifes and landscapes painted in oil, using the palette knife. At Christmas 1961-62 he participated in the school’s first group exhibition and in 1968 he held his first individual exhibition at “Amics de les Arts de Terrassa”.

Drawing and painting have been a mainstay throughout his life, practicing them all day until he reached a splendid ninety-two years, at which time he did not overcome the pandemic (March 30, 2020).

He exhibited in different Catalan cities (Terrassa, Sabadell, Barcelona, ​​Sant Cugat del Vallés, Tarragona, Vic, Olot, La Bisbal de l’Empordà) and outside Catalonia (Castellón, Madrid). Also in collectives in Sentmenat, Montblanc and on a Transatlantic across the Mediterranean Sea (where some work by Salvador Dalí was also exhibited).

To better understand what he thought, we quote some comments he said during the presentations, in interviews in different media:

• Tarrasa Información (12-2-1968) – “Art and sport, despite their apparent divorce, are two very related products of my temperament. From a very young age I had a love for both things, for football and athletics, at the beginning; for roller hockey, later; and always, through drawing and painting.”
• Tarrasa Información (10-10-1974) – “I have been painting for more than twenty-five years, in constant dissatisfaction with myself, always in search of new solutions that bring me closer to a definitive achievement that, possibly, will never be given to me.”

• Diario de Terrassa (8-11-1980) – “Still lifes are color studies. Each one different: studies on copper, on ceramics, on reflections, etc.”

(Referring to landscapes) “…an atmosphere, an environment. I try to apply all possible color qualities to give the painting an atmosphere. Perhaps because of the involuntary presence of the drawing and because of my penchant for painting in autumn, which provides a wide range of warm colors… In this sense, I insist that my paintings must be seen in terms of the qualities of the color.”

• Diario de Terrassa (17-11-1989) – “There are landscapes that are better during the day and others in the afternoon. I usually always finish the painting in the same place. I think that working on it later in the studio would bring out freshness, because the light varies from the natural… The landscape is spontaneity, while the still life responds more to a study of colors and composition.”

“Inspiration is what gives me the formation of the painting, the composition. And the desire, the need to paint. It can be compared a little to music, where it is one thing to interpret it and another to compose it. Inspiration is always related to a concern, which is what leads you to make a work.”

Finally, regarding the content of his work, what better than to collect the opinion expressed by some of the art analysts from the different cities where he exhibited:

• Sabadell (26-2-1972) – “…(still lifes) Everything finds the knowledge of a strategic placement, the vision of an original way of conceiving the still life achieving a true study of the pieces that is in perspective and in obtaining light, through the color of a only object, which by reason of its totality receives it and extends it to other objects.” Rosa Ten
• Mundo (2-10-1974) – “Works that the artist creates, from an academic perspective, what are known as still lifes and that, on the contrary, are released in oil paintings with a clear landscape representation.”

“The secrets of painting, which continues the line of impressionism, are known to him perfectly and he uses them guided by a fine sensitivity that he transfers to his works”. Francesc Gali

• El Alcázar. Madrid (23-4-1986) –  “(still lifes)  The unique thing about this matter… is the unfolding of the forms that are reflected under the plane on which they are located. It is a constant game that, from its naturalistic roots, leads the Catalan painter to a kind of cubism”.

          “… gives humble belongings the importance of people” Elena Flórez.

• Madrid (23-4-1986) –“… A sobriety that not only saves his painting but makes it beautiful and valuable“. Manuel Silvela
• Radio Nacional. Radio 5. Barcelona (octubre-1989) – “… His work is pure and simply realistic, close to the truth of what you have learned, he knows how to compose it, he knows how to explain it in a pale and engaging way, he also knows how to tell us those things that in a certain way the large public vol that they say and explain, but at the same time, without donating concessions to them. He knows how to tell us many things that those who are generally good artists don’t know how to tell us. He has a great job, he is an artist who does more to more, the virtue of telling us things with words, precisely containers” Josep Maresma i Pedragosa.
• Castellón Diario (25-11-1993) – “They are still lifes, as we say, more in the tradition of the Netherlands than in that of the Mediterranean”. Manuel Godoy
• Castellón (noviembre-1995) –“Rarely has greater eloquence been achieved with greater simplicity, such as that of the naked truth of the object, than that achieved by Tarrés“. A. Gascó
• Diari de Sabadell (16-11-1996) –“Now, the collection, certainly very large, is an encounter with the art of the artist who now, with the maturation of his craft, presents himself as an indisputable master”.
• Mediterráneo. Castellón (29-10-2004) – “Tarrés Féniz gives warmth to the inanimate through the freshness of his brushstrokes”.
• Diari de Terrassa (19-11-2008) 40th anniversary – “he practices a painting that is truly far from the renewing plastic and aesthetic changes…but the artist is literally sincere in his thinking and doing and this is very much observed in each work he makes…”. Félix Riaza