The Maricel Museum presents a sculpture by Pere Jou: Female nude with hands on head, which becomes part of the permanent collection thanks to the donation of Mrs. Anni Cercós, from Barcelona. The work will be the main star in the activity The Piece of the Month, to be held on Friday 25 in the Gothic Room of the Maricel Museum at 19 am and presented by Ignasi Domenech, head of collections of the Museums of Sitges.
The donation made by Anni Cercós allows adding funds to Maricel Museum, with a work that is part of his methodological speech. This work joins other works from the MNAC and the Museum of Montserrat, among other collections.
Female nude with hands on head is an interesting example of the work by Pere Jou (Sitges, 1891-1964) carried out during the mid-fifties of the last century. Just as other works from this period made of stone, Jou produced this piece using the technique of direct carving. This is a way to create sculpture creating a shape inspired in the model that the sculptor has in his head or through some preliminary drawings, using only blows of chisel and hammer. Very few artists throughout art history have been able to use this technique. The difficulty lies in the impossibility to correct any error, since once extracted matter, you cannot go back.
Pere Jou excelled in the work of direct carving, which characterized his work in wood and stone throughout his life, making him a sculptor respected by critics and his peers. His work is scattered around different Catalan towns and abroad, but Sitges gathers most of his important works: the capitals and Maricel´s gargoyles, Prado friezes, sculptures applied to different facades of the town or the magnificent Siren at the tip of the breakwater, among others.