Lot 49: Carlos Nadal (1917-1998) Fenêtre ouverte

Fenêtre ouverte
signed 'C. Nadal' (lower right); signed again, inscribed and stamped twice with artist's atelier stamp 'Fenêtre auverte [sic] C. Nadal' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
73.5 x 92.5cm (28 15/16 x 36 7/16in).

This work is sold with a photo-certificate of authenticty from the Comité Nadal.

This work has been requested to be included in the forthcoming exhibition of Carlos Nadal to be exhibited at Bonhams, New Bond Street, 25 August - 7 September 2011.

Fenêtre ouverte is from Nadal's Salon, Homage and Collection Series.

"Look up and around, not down at the pavement as so many people do. Make to enjoy the day of the joie de vivre." (Carlos Nadal, quoted during an address to students in Barcelona in the 1980s)

This sense of the joie de vivre absorbed from ones immediate surroundings infuses the work of the Catalan painter Carlos Nadal. Known as 'the last wild expressionist of Spain' (J. Duncalfe, 'Carlos Nadal: Obituary' in The Independent, 20 June 1998) Nadal exults in a riot of colours within his canvases, using bold contours and a naïve style to present familiar, illustrative scenes which recall memories of holidays, homeliness and happiness.

While Nadal was fairly diverse in the choice of his settings, be it Flemish interiors, Spanish beaches or the Cote d'Azur, his energy of expression and uniquely optimistic perception of the world around him continually comes to the fore. And, despite his friendships and support from fellow artists such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque and Oscar Dominguez, he was never tempted to stray too far into the realm of abstraction but remained ever faithful to representation and the vibrancy of his fauvist influences.