Albert Ràfols Casamada (Barcelona, 1923-2009) is known, essentially, for his plastic work. However, his extensive artistic career, of international impact, has largely overshadowed his multifaceted figure. Ràfols painter hides Ràfols pedagogue - the founder and director of Elisava y Eina - but also Ràfols poet. Both arts meet in the exhibition "Ràfols Casamada. The artist's walk" which opens on November 11 at the Palau de Caldes d'Estrac Foundation (Maresme) and will end on February 11, 2024. The exhibition can be visited for free in the Foundation's Artigues Room.
Painting and writing develop in Ràfols' life simultaneously. One participates in the other. In 1937, at the age of fourteen and in the middle of the civil war, a very young Ràfols Casamada wrote his first poems and painted his first paintings. Since then, the sensitive spirit of the artist will try to capture moments in painting and words. Both disciplines often enter into a strange symbiosis: Ràfols' poetic world is eminently plastic. It is a poetry that can be seen, tasted, smelled, and touched. Like his pictorial work, it responds to a sensitive view of the world in which present and past, future and nostalgia are mixed. The word, in a great exercise of synthesis, becomes an intensifier of life, testimony of experiences, evocator of worlds.
One of his first published poetic books was “Notes nocturnes”, published in 1974, a fusion between lyrics and painting in the form of a visual poem. It would not be until 1976 that, spurred by Llibres del Mall and with the support of his editor friend Josep M. Castellet, the volume “Signe d'Aire” was published, collecting a good part of the literary work written by him until then. . Then came a good number of more books: “Territori de temps” (1979), “Paranys i Raons per catch instants” (1981), “El color de les pedres” (1989), “Cinc notes angleses” (1990), “Hoste del dia” (1994) or “Policromia o la Galeria dels miralls” (1999).. And to all these titles we must also add numerous limited editions self-published by the artist or short-run bibliophile editions.
However, his literary work still remains forgotten and cries out to be recovered. With this objective, the exhibition wants to delve into the poetic world of Ràfols, unravel its origins and make it accessible to the general public, establish bridges between his work and that of other generation colleagues who helped, such as Palau i Fabre, Joan Perucho, Castellet , Joan Teixidor, Salvador Espriu, Maria Aurèlia Capmany... Putting, in short, his literary work in its rightful place.
