Miquel Torner de Semir (1938) - Interior con menina

Signed by the artist on the bottom The work is presented unframed Dimensions of the work: 55 cm in height x 46 cm in width Good condition BIOGRAPHY OF MIQUEL TORNER DE SEMIR. Miquel Torner de Semir was born in 1938 in the castle of Santa Pau, in Garrotxa (Girona), being the last living person born in this emblematic building surrounded by volcanoes (he currently lives in Sant Feliu de Guíxols). This fact marks his facet as a painter. A man of old Catalonia, cultured, he has always been drawn to the Middle Ages, Pyrenean Romanesque, and primitive Gothic art. The influence of Italian Renaissance art, especially painters of the Italian Quattrocento such as Fra Angelico or Raphael, can be felt in many of Torner de Semir’s female portraits, including the one we have here. It is precisely that blend of old and new where the originality of his work lies. What seems to have shaped him most is the knowledge of Romanesque and Gothic art. His figures, often outlined with a thick dark line, evoke Gothic stained glass—luminescent, beautiful in themselves. A disciple of muralist painter and engraver Ricard Marlet, he learns what he considers most important—the discipline of drawing. With Master Marlet he becomes acquainted with Modernism and Catalan Noucentisme. He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Sant Jordi in Barcelona and at the San Fernando School in Madrid, where he would visit the Prado Museum and absorb Velázquez’s painting, choosing to reproduce the meninas to his liking, with his own style, using vivid colors such as pink and fluorescent violet that leave no doubt about the artist’s emphasis, modernity, and charm. Moreover, if one looks closely, one can observe his use of collage techniques, embedding pieces of fabric, cardboard, or even a musical score. In Paris, he begins his work as he calls it, “between the old and the new.” He began to hold solo exhibitions in Terrassa in 1968, later in other Catalan cities and in Paris (Espace and Boutique galleries). His work started in a Mediterranean figurativism, eventually evolving into abstraction, only to return to a figurative form with a modern concept. He is considered, ultimately, one of the most important exponents of Mediterranean painting. All these tendencies were not unknown to him, since in Barcelona he had the opportunity to meet the group Dau al Set. In the Dau al Set school he encounters renowned artists such as Tharrats, Muxart, and Tapies. His painting is characterized by the use of bright, rich colors. His work can be defined in a single word: LIFE. Thus, the magnificent work of this Catalan painter is characterized by its rich, dense color and the various materials he uses as support, giving us the result of an expressionist painting of high chromatic quality and pronounced personality, defining the artist as a master. Classical and modern merge in Miquel Torner de Semir’s brush. Time dissolves, vanishes. The dividing line between past and present is erased with his paintings, with his way of laying down on the canvas. Miquel achieves what very few before him have managed: to speak of the past with the voice of the present. His voice: his paintings. His method: passion. His achievement: all his work. The painter from Gerona is influenced by antiquity, Giotto, the Italian Renaissance, and the informal exploration of abstract painters. All this is the starting point of his painting; craft worries him as much or more than concept. He has tried to be a bridge painter between past and present, but also open to all that is new, to constant exploration. An interesting contrast in Torner de Semir’s work is the way he presents people, places, and situations from ancient times, rendered with modern painting techniques. This distinguished Catalan painter has been able to break with the rules of time. So direct is Miquel Torner de Semir in defining lines and shapes that it is almost unbelievable that the work is a two-dimensional canvas, at first glance appearing to be a sum of textures from a three-dimensional world. Some of his works have a notable Fauvist accent, with an intense and expressive palette, in contrast with the serenity and vacant gaze of the faces that invite the viewer to delve into the surroundings of the artwork and the artist’s thinking. Nevertheless, Torner de Semir has his own style based on the simplicity of execution within a very well-structured composition. The female figures have the measured forms of religious art and express the calm of the spirit. The figure serves Semir to claim order and the rhythm of human actions. According to Joan Lluís Montañé, Barcelona-born, member of the International Association of Art Critics, the prestigious Catalan painter Torner de Semir, in his extensive pictorial work, “is interested in composition and color, generative of specially elaborated creations, where the imprint of determination and a contrasted color palette is evident. He exhibits figures, landscapes, and compositions that imply a clear exercise of pictorial academicism in which he does not renounce certain formal and technical innovation, all within an unmistakable personal plastic signature.” The art critic Josep M. Cadena says of Semir: “The painter marks the silhouettes of the main elements of each composition with strong, precise lines and uses basic, pure colors to express feelings. When possible, he creates the painting within the painting, and even attempts to place abstract interpretations and signs in his backgrounds. This achieves a positive relationship between the various forms of artistic expression that motivate him, and his plastic language is much richer and more attractive. He has a personal style based on simplicity of execution within a very well-structured composition. His female figures have the paused forms of religious art and express the calm that must obey the realizations of the spirit. The figure serves to demand order and rhythm in human actions; his painting is ethical. It communicates positive sensations to those who know his work.” For J. Llop S.: “Drawing, the fundamental, strong, precise, incisive stroke establishes the form, delineates spaces in the meditated compositions that Torner de Semir presents. And then comes seeing differently, the imaginative, dreams that connect with the reality he describes and dresses with a chromaticism that combines basic colors with soft tonalities. It is a personal style that discovers the other reality of the landscape, of the figure. An interesting and engaging work that traps the viewer and leads him along the path of the imaginative.” Consistent with his vision of the primitives, he has not worried much about his social projection toward his masters; these were sometimes unnamed and although his works are in many countries, he has exhibited in Europe, America, and Japan, making a comprehensive résumé difficult. He currently exhibits permanently at La Galería Arcadia in Madrid. In 2003 he is chosen by the Museo de la Real Casa de la Moneda to have one of his works issued on a postage stamp and to participate in the XXV anniversary of the Spanish Constitution. Meanwhile, the Museo de la Real Casa de la Moneda in Madrid organized a solo exhibition of his works. Torner’s works have been exhibited in a large number of European and Spanish cities such as: Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Strasbourg, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Dijon, Clermont-Ferrand, Barcelona, Girona, Valencia, Seville, Pontevedra, Oviedo, etc. Below are some of the artist’s most significant exhibitions: Most significant exhibitions Amics de les Arts. Terrassa - Barcelona. Pinacoteca. Sabadell - Barcelona. Sociéte des Artiste Independants. Paris. Grand Palais. Paris. Dan Art, Béziers-France. Galerie Espace. Paris-Beaubourg. Lions Club. Chartres Doyen - France. Honorary guest at the exhibition of Cercle Espanyol. Dreux - France. Salon d’Automne. Clermont-Ferrand - France. Grand Prix la Femme et l’Imagerie Jeanne Gatineau. Paris. Sala Gavina. Palamós - Girona. Sala Clará, Olot-Barcelona. Espai cultural Francolí-Barcelona. Galerie Boutique. Paris, France. La Galerie de l’Hotel Meridien. Paris. L’Atelier. Platja d’Aro.Girona. Ausstellungsräume der Mineralquelle Eptigen. Switzerland. Galería Arcadia- Madrid. Galería de arte Star. Colectiva.Madrid. Galería 4 Cantons. Olot.Girona. Galería Catalonia-Barcelona. Galería Art 16. Olot.Girona. Pedreguet Art espai contemporani. Girona. Galería Da Vinci Art. Girona. Galerie Ducs de Dijon. France. Galería Campo u Campo. Belgium. Galería B.C.S. Estrasburgo.Francia. Haus Arnold. Frankfurt am Main. Germany. Haus Berlinghoff. Heidelberg. Germany. Naumilenium. Barcelona. Lart century art. Barcelona. Real Club Náutico de Sanxenxo. Pontevedra. Picassomio.com Madrid. Galeries d’Art Christian Dazy. Dijon-Megève-France. Exposición Conmemorativa del 25 Aniversario de la Constitución Española. Madrid. Sala Constanti Art, Reus. Navidad 2009-Tarragona. #parisapartment

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