Sitges claims the sculpture and intellectual legacy of Gustau Violet

The work, the trajectory and the thinking of the north-Catalan sculptor Gustau Violet (Tuïr, 1873 - Perpignan, 1952), as well as its close ties to the territory, aret the main attraction in the exhibition L'escultor   Gustau Violet: art, thought and territory, organized by the Museums of Sitges, with the collaboration of the City Council of Sitges, the Diputació de Barcelona (Barcelona Provincial Government) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalonian Government).. The exhibition, curated by Ignasi Domènech, Head of Collections of the Museums of Sitges, and the historian of the art Ester Barón, will be held at the Museum of Maricel between July 7 and October 21.

Gustau Violet was one of the most important sculptors in Paris in the early twentieth century and, at the same time, was one of the most committed and meaningful artist’s adscribed to Catalan culture in Roussillon. Of architectural training, he also worked on the illustration, the forge, the creation of ceramics and furniture design. It was, however, his facet as a sculptor who projected him as an artist with his own language, which allowed him to stampl a sculpture freed of the social functions of the time.

In Paris, Violet coincided with Santiago Rusiñol and back to Catalonia he did it with Miquel Utrillo. In Roussillon he drew links with the Catalan culture and its inhabitants, who were reflected in his work and framed in his thoughts. Violet vindicated an art rooted in its North-Catalan region and in the Mediterranean, which drank and was inspired by its landscapes, people and their customs.

The exhibition presents the work of Violet in the context of the Rossellonian art of its time, with works by painters and sculptors active in the early twentieth century, when Cotlliure or Ceret became a modern art laboratory. 

The exhibition The sculptor   Gustau Violet: Art, Thought and Territory presents 107 works from various collections, such as the Musée d'Orsay (Paris), the Musee d'Art et d'Histoire de Narbonne, the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC ), the Barcelona Design Museum, the Sabadell Art Museum and the Jaume Morera Art Museum (Lleida), among others. The exhibition has also received loans from archives, libraries, art galleries and private collections.

The sculptor   Gustau Violet: art, thought and territory
From 7 July to 21 October
Maricel Museum (Sitges)
Timetable: Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.