• SCHOOLS AND INSTITUTIONS
• ARTISTIC MOVEMENTS AND STYLES
• MOVEMENTS AND GROUPS
• HIS TEACHERS
• HIS FRIENDS
• CRITICS AND BIOGRAPHERS
• HIS INFLUENCE OVER HIS DISCIPLES AND STUDENTS
• EXPOSITION
• COLLECTIONS

SCHOOLS AND INSTITUTIONS

MOVEMENT OF ARTISTIC AND STYLES

MOVEMENTS AND GROUPS

HIS TEACHERS

• Isidre Nonell – Llotja
• Torres García – Sarria Sschool
• Félix Mestre – Gausachs

COMPANIONS AND CONTEMPORARIES

• Modigliani: (One of whose work became an authentic connoisseur with time)
• Picasso:
• Gargallo:
• Utrillo:
• Juan Gris:
• Chirico. Fujita:
• Marquet: Albert Marquet, who in front of one of his paintings said “¡Este cuadro lo hubiese querido pintar yo!”
• Bracque:
• Marc Chagall:
• Tristán Tzara: he expressed growth to the quality of the man and the artist and giving to him one box of paintings, that is still conserved, like a valuable relic, to the relatives of the Catalan painter.

BIOGRAPHIES AND CRITICS

• Rafael Benet:
• A. Junyent:
• Pernaud: Critic of the art “L’ Intransigeant”,affirmed then that Josep Gausachs painted “con los colores de la bandera francesa”
• Charensol: From “Les Nouvelles Literaires”, did not remain considering back to the artist like one of the finest representatives of the painting school
• Christian Zervos:
• Waldemar George:
• Juan Antonio Gaya: the historian of the art Juan Antonio Gaya Ñuño did not doubt in considering it like one of the most representative examples of the Catalan painting school during the first half of century XX.
• Manuel Trens: de que Gausachs no había dejado de ser, en su tierra, “un gran desconocido”. Opinión ésta que expresó en el catálogo de una retrospectiva que a título póstumo le dedicó en 1964 la galería de arte Syra, de Barcelona.
• F. V. Foix: Ráfols. Benet. F. V. Foix hablaron entonces de “neofauvismo” en la pintura de Gausachs. o de una “superación del fauvismo enriquecida, además, por una visión personal”, Foix. O “Focius”, se convierte entonces en el más airado defensor de la obra de Gausachs.
• A. Plana: de “La Vanguardia En 1934 y 1935 Guasachs expuso paisajes de Ibiza y Mallorca, donde estuvo pintando y trabajando el arte del vitral, y. respectivamente, de Collicabra. La fuerte luminosidad del paisaje mediterráneo, que sin gradaciones ni matices, como afirmó un crítico (A. Plana, de “La Vanguardia

ESTUDIANTES DISCÍPULOS Y SUS INFLUENCIAS

Como maestro, Gausachs “enseñó a ver” a artistas de la talla de Gilberto Hernández Ortega y Clara Ledesma, e incluso a la más joven Ada Balcácer y les hizo conscientes del mundo fascinante, lleno de magia y misticismo de la negritud antillana. Esa idea esencial del arte dominicano, esa poseía secreta que se respira en el Hernández Ortega primero y único y que trasciende de igual modo en la obra de Iván Tovar, Gausachs logro influir incluso sobre Wifredo Lam. Esto es, en suma, un aporte fundamental que hace Gausachs a la plástica dominicana

EXPOSICIONES

• Gausachs expuso reiteradamente en París, en las galerías de Van Ogen. Pierre y Vidrach, y en Bruselas y Ámsterdam marchands de tableaux
• galería de arte Syra retrospectiva que a título póstumo le dedicó en 1964 la galería de arte Syra, de Barcelona.
• Galerías Layetanas últimos meses de 1931 Gausachs presentó en Galerías Layetanas una colección de dibujos a la aguada, algunos coloreados, de paisajes del Valle de Echo, en el Pirineo aragonés, que el diario “La Publicitat” del once de diciembre caracteriza como “glosas subjetivas de una visión fugitiva matizada por un expresionismo atemperado por un dejo sentimental”.
• Sala Pares En febrero de 1932 expuso nuevamente, ahora pinturas, y en la Sala Pares Sala Pares se convierte entonces en el pretexto para la celebración de un homenaje al artista en el “Lyon d’Or”, al que asistieron, entre otros, los críticos Sebastián Gasch. Foix y Benet. los artistas Grau Sala. Fenosa Obiols. Además de J. A. Maragall y el poeta Carles Ribas, quien dedicó un poema al homenajeado.
• Salón de Montjui’c 1932 Gausachs se hizo presente aquel año en el mundo artístico barcelonés por su participación en el “Salón de Montjui’c”. donde la prensa lo nombra entre los “maestros” como Carles. Labarta. Domingo y Pidelaserra.
• Sala Bigas 1935 expone Gausachs en la Sala Bigas y en Vic. No deja por entonces de incursionar en el arte del retrato
• 1944 participó en una exposición que organizó la Comisión de Refugiados Españoles para la Conmemoración del Centenario de la República Dominicana, y que presidía el eminente penalista Constancio Bernaldo de Quirós.

GOVERNING LAWS OF THE GAUSACHS FOUNDATION

Chapter I

Name, stamp, address, Objectives and Duration

Section 1. Denomination. – The nonprofit society is called “Gausachs FOUNDATION, INC.”, governed by current law 520 of July 26, 1920 (GO # 3139 dated August 4, 1920) or any other laws, regulations or provisions that in the future could be issued on the matter.

Article 2. SEAL.- will have a circular seal with the inscription: “Gausachs FOUNDATION, INC.” (above), Santo Domingo, National District (center) and Dominican Republic (below). This stamp will be applied in all documentation issued by the company and other documents that the law, these statutes or practice so require, according to their managers.

Article 3 Address. – “Gausachs FOUNDATION, INC.”, will be domiciled in the city of Santo Domingo, National District, capital of the Dominican Republic, in the place that has the Directing Council or the General Assembly and may be transferred or create other offices in any other places or cities in the country or abroad.

Article 4 . -Objectives. – Gausachs FOUNDATION, INC., was established with the objectives of:

Increasing knowledge of the works of painter José Gausachs; Locate, collect, preserve and restore the works of painter José Gausachs; study the works of the painter José Gausachs, Expose and Promote the general public all the works of painter José Gausachs for them are known; Promote projects aimed to be known more about the life and work of the painter José Gausachs, including their techniques and modes of painting ;; Provide guidance to all persons or institutions involved or promote Dominican art in its general. Promote art in all its forms and genres; Conduct educational and cultural activities to promote art, including lectures, courses, workshops, seminars, etc., contribute to poor people with skills in painting can develop these skills through studies in recognized institutions, financed by the Foundation; fundraising and accept contributions in money, movable and immovable property, and other services for the above objectives;

PARAGRAPH I: The above objectives are not limited to the activities of the entity. On the contrary, the Foundation may exercise the powers agreed by the Statutes other tasks designed to meet any need for own purposes for which it was created.

PARAGRAPH II: The Foundation may implement their projects, either on its own administration or in conjunction with other private or public, domestic or foreign entities.

DURATION. – Article 5. The duration of Gausachs, FOUNDATION INC ., is indefinite and can only be dissolved by decision of the Extraordinary General Assembly of Members, by the affirmative vote of not less than seventy-five (75%) its founders and active members.

CHAPTER II

MEMBER

Article 6. The members of the institution, all Dominicans and foreigners who are integrated into the same meeting the conditions set out in these Statutes. In addition to the founding members may be members of the “Gausachs FOUNDATION, INC.” , individuals or institutions, besides their moral, intellectual excellence or quality, are invited or requested belong to the institution and approved by the resulting income Board and pay the corresponding fee income.

Article 7. Members four categories are established:

Active Founders Collaborators Honorariums founding members: Those persons signing of the Constitutive Act and the Statute of the ” FOUNDATION Gausachs, INC, linked to its origin, creation and start. “. ACTIVE MEMBERS: Those persons, natural or juridical, after formally constituted the institution be invited or apply for admission in that capacity and to maintain a continuing interest in their work and development, attending events and collaborating in their operation. MEMBERS PARTNERS: Those persons, natural or legal, permanent or occasionally collaborating with the work of the institution. HONORARY MEMBERS: Those persons, natural or legal persons to whom the Assembly gives them this capacity for having provided useful services and / or disinterested to “Gausachs FOUNDATION, INC.” , in recognition of works of social altruism .

PARAGRAPH: They may be members of the Foundation natural or legal persons who request it and are approved by the Board, taking into consideration their interest in promoting the development of Dominican art, especially the works of painter José Gausachs.

CHAPTER III

RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF THE FOUNDING MEMBERS AND ASSETS

Article 8. The founders and active members have the following rights:

Faculty voice and vote in the Assemblies of Members; elect and be elected to any office of management; attend all activities organized by the Gausachs, INC FOUNDATION;. Require all members compliance with internal rules and principles governing the life of the institution.

Article 9. The founders and active members have the following duties:

Regular attendance and activities of the institution, assume responsibility for the tasks they may assign; Providing create many ideas and initiatives important to the development and progress of the Gausachs, Inc. Foundation, ensure compliance and responsibilities they they have been assigned by both the Assembly and by the Board.

Article 10 All Members of the Foundation, without exception, will cease to belong to it by:

Resignation, absence or incapacity, death, default on its obligations and duties; Engaging odds with public and private morality.

CHAPTER IV

Governing bodies, assemblies, QUORUM, MINUTES.

Article 12. There shall be Ordinary and Extraordinary General Assembly regardless of the constituent. General Meetings shall be constituted by the meeting of the registration of the Founders and active members or their representatives, in the number and with the formalities required by these Bylaws. When duly constituted shall represent the universality of its members must be present at its deliberations half plus one of the Members existing at the time of the Assembly. If such quorum shall fail the Assembly will be held one hour after the presence of 40% of Members.

Article 13. Unless special provisions of this Statute or the law, any decision of the General Ordinary or Extraordinary Meetings shall be endorsed by the affirmative vote of at least a simple majority of the registration of the founding members and assets or their representatives present at the meeting.

Article 14. The deliberations and agreements of the Assemblies, of this Constitution and the law obliges all members, even those who are absent, incapable or dissenting. Such agreements shall be conclusive against them and there will be no appeal.

Article 15. Each Member Founder and Active entitled to attend and vote at any general meeting, either personally or by proxy provided simple written proxy.

Article 16 The General Assembly shall be chaired by the President. Ed for missing or unable, by the Vice President and in his absence and the latter absence, incapacity or disqualification, the Chairman or his substitute appointed as a present Member Secretary Ad-Hoc.

Article 17. Before the start of work of the General Assembly, the Secretary shall make a list containing the names and addresses of the members present. Such list shall sign all present.

Article 18. Minutes of the meetings of the General Assembly is drawn. They are written to machine and they will form a book. They shall be signed by all those present, to do so, the Secretary shall indicate the causes. The lack of some firms is not a cause of nullity, provided that those bearing the members making up the majority required for the unresolved issues. Copies of the minutes are issued, they will attest to their accuracy as they are approved by the President and certified by the Secretary with the seal stamped Foundation.

CHAPTER V

POWERS OF THE SEVERAL MEETINGS, CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY CALL

Article 19. The Constitutive General Assembly should be constituted with the presence of the founding members, in person or by regular representation. It belongs:

Approve the statutes of the institution and perform the necessary legal procedures to get your incorporation by Executive Order; Choose two (2) years, the first members of the Governing Council, to elect for one year the first Commissioner, recommend to the Board policies or standards to be implemented during the first year of activities.

ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Article 20. Annual General Meetings will be conducted as it considers the Board and shall be convened by its President.

Article 21. The Annual Ordinary General Assembly will be held, without notice, on 15 March each year at three in the afternoon (3:00 pm) at the address of the Foundation. If that day is a holiday, the meeting will take place the next business day. When force majeure can not meet the Assembly on designated days, it will be held at the earliest date, on the invitation of the President. The powers of this Assembly:

Choose every two (2) years Member of the Board, elect annually Commissioner; recommend to the Board policies or standards to be implemented during the first year of operations; know the annual report of the activities of the Board, including the financial report. annual programs and projects in perspective; Meet other matters within its competence; Designating the Advisory Council.

EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Article 22 shall have power to convene the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders:

The President, two members of the Board; Commissioner for handling administrative matters or economic interest.

Article 23. The call will be made ​​five (5) days before the date in writing or by circular signed by the member, where time, date, place and agenda indicated. In urgent cases, members may be called by telephone, telegraph or personally. The Assembly will be held in the premises of the Foundation or any other place at the appointed time. You will not need a call, if 75% of the Members are present and accept into consideration of the matters to be discussed or if the previous Assembly has left previously summoned to the next.

Article 24. The powers of the Extraordinary General Assembly:

Substitute Member of the Board and the Commissioner that the judgment and for any reason must be relieved before the expiration of the term for which they were named. Provide the vacancies that occur in the Executive Council or Commissioner. The new Member shall hold office for the time remaining to run until the expiration of his predecessor. Any deletion, substitution, modification or alteration in the social governing laws. Sale, exchange, constitute mortgages, guarantees or in any way dispose of the goods Property of the Company and the governing laws. Modify governing laws on other matters not expressly provided.

PARAGRAPH I: The Extraordinary General Meeting may decide the dissolution and liquidation of the Foundation with the affirmative vote of not less than 75% (seventy-five percent) of the Members existing at the time the decision to intervene.

PARAGRAPH II: In any case, the Extraordinary General Assembly may exercise the powers of the General Assembly.

CHAPTER VI

THE BOARD, COMPOSITION, duration, MEETINGS AND POWERS

Article 25. The Board of Directors shall consist of not less than five (5) members. The first Board of Directors shall be appointed by the Constituent General Assembly; and later successive Governing Council are appointed by the Annual Ordinary General Meeting to be, to be appointed from among themselves a President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and as it may desire Members to complete the number of members established in this article.

These members have the same designation in the institution. Its functions will last two (2) years if for any reason has not been able to constitute the General Assembly should provide his appointment, or if he has been unable to deliver the cargo to the new Members.

Article 26. The Board of Directors held all the meetings that the President or the person acting considers necessary for its development and operability but at least hold a monthly meeting. Two (2) Members of the Board may request the President to hold the meeting.

The meetings of the Executive Council shall not be made with less than three (03) members present when the Council is composed of five (05) members; and less than five (05) members where it is composed of seven (7) to nine (9) to thirteen (13) members. Its decisions shall always be approved by a majority of the Members present. In case of a tie vote will be decisive President or his substitute.

Article 27. The resolutions of the Board shall be identified by machine processes verbal written and signed by the respective Members. A book of these Resolutions and assistance form. The copies or extracts from such verbal processes will attest to their accuracy with the President’s approval and certification of the Secretary, together with the stamp of the institution.

Article 28. The Board of Directors will among others, the following functions:

Manage and administer the institution during the period in which the General Assembly are not deliberating. In this period you can resolve any issue and any action it deems appropriate to it. Only he is forbidden to usurp functions of the General Assemblies of Members; Establish internal regulations; Buy or in any way acquire property, enter into all contracts that are necessary to the smooth running of the institution; execute and enforce all decisions General Assemblies of Members and decide the change of registered office, hear and rule on cases of expulsion of members by application of the present statutes; fix the general administrative expenses and regular supplies, delegate the powers of which is invested in one or several of its members, one or more individuals; Provide officials with authority, with the President or the person acting for writing checks against the accounts of the Foundation, valid for the president’s signature or that this available; Integrate Teams or Working Groups and Research Volunteers as may be necessary to achieve the goals of intellectual work and outreach of the institution; Establish departments necessary to achieve the objectives, and may eventually be coordinated by an executive director hired by the Foundation Any matters especially attributed to the General Assembly, appoint such committees as it deems necessary to assist the Board in its various activities.

CHAPTER VII

EXPRESS POWERS OF OFFICERS OF THE BOARD

THE PRESIDENT

Article 29. The President shall have the following powers:

Chair General Assemblies and meetings of the Board; Act in behalf of the institution or in all social, official, judicial or administrative actions; grant agreements or location of works subcontracts; Signing behalf of the institution all documents indicate hereof, the collegiate bodies or the law; celebrate or subscribe for all contracts other than faculty of the Board; Keep on deposit in one or more banking institutions in the Dominican Republic or foreign funds of the Foundation and issue valid with his signature or his designee those checks, safeguard and manage, as prescribed by the Board, all the goods institution perceive credits and pay the debts and provide assurances as may be necessary in its sole signature; appoint professionals needed regular employees or the institution, initiate, continue or answer actions, claims and legal proceedings of any kind; Comply and execute any mandate or agreement of the General Assemblies of Members and of the Board or any other function assigned to it by these statutes or the law; appoint an Executive Director and establish their duties and remuneration, when deemed appropriate convene the General Assembly and the Board of Directors, who put questions to try, authorize and perform all purchases or real estate sales and order transfers, redemptions, transfers of income or other securities belonging to the assets of the institution; Giving or receiving rent or lease real or personal property irrespective of their nature, duration or importance, with power to amend, rescind or propagate;

FIRST VICE PRESIDENT

Article 30. The First Vice President shall have the following powers:

Replace the President in all his duties in case of impediment, absence, disqualification or any other cause Integrate the Board; execute and fulfill the resolutions of the General Assemblies of Members and the Board.

TREASURER

Article 31. The Treasurer shall have the following powers:

Ensure the protection and care of the documents and economic goods; Ensure that funds deposited in a bank or foreign national reputation, ensure the health of the financial statement of the Foundation fulfill any management responsibilities that the Board .

SECRETARY

Article 32. The functions of the Secretary:

Keep the books of the institution and keep them in good condition, keep the books of the foundation and condition; keeping the minutes of General Assemblies of Members and the Board, which will form books, issue certified copies of the agreements of the General Assembly and the directors council. Prepare all reports and certifications that are consistent with these bylaws or the laws of the country; Keep custody the seal of the institution and set it in documents that require it; Signing behalf Foundation documents indicate hereof, the collegiate bodies or the Act; maintain a record book with the names of the Members of the Institution; Having bring proper accounting records to record revenue – expenses of the institution; Run fulfill the agreements of the Assemblies, Board of Directors, President and CEO.

FOR MEMBERS

Article 33. The functions of the members shall be determined by resolutions of the Board

COMMISSIONER

Article 34 The institution shall have a Commissioner to be initially appointed by the Constituent Assembly and later by the General Assembly, an annual effect, re-elected one or more times and is responsible for the following functions:

Ensure proper operating and administrative management of the institution and submit an annual report to the Ordinary Assembly, related to the economic activities of the institution.

HERITAGE

Article 35 The economic assets of the institution will be obtained from:

The resources to be received for the performance of activities with the aim of its creation as an issue and / or sale of books, publications, services, events, courses, bonds, raffles, among others; The regular and special contributions provided by Members or sympathizers Institution, donations or contributions that may be received from individuals and national and foreign institutions, real or personal property acquired by way of purchase, exchange, donation, etc.; Any other property, tangible or intangible that by lawful means MIGHT receive ;

ADVISORY COUNCIL

Article 36 The General Assembly shall appoint an Advisory Council, composed of Honorary Members or others as determined for all time be required to participate in various meetings and activities conducted by the Foundation, with the aim of supporting and advice to projects and programs it promotes.

Financial year

Article 37. The fiscal year of the Foundation will begin on January 1 and will be cut as of December 31 of each year and balance sheets, financial statements and reports to be submitted by the Board to the Annual Meeting of Members and Memory the Commissioner shall refer to that period.

Article 38. After each exercise will practice balance and financial statements showing the financial condition of certiorari be prepared. These financial statements to be finished within a month of closure of each financial year and shall be submitted by the Board immediately to a certified public accountant for later consideration by the General Assembly at its annual ordinary session.

DISSOLUTION AND LIQUIDATION

Article 39. The Extraordinary General Assembly may decide the dissolution and liquidation of the Foundation, with the affirmative vote of members representing at least 75% (seventy five percent) of the registration of the founding members and existing assets when to take such a decision. The Assembly regulate the mode of carrying out the liquidation and appoint whom you have to practice, ceasing with this appointment the Board.

If the Assembly does not regulate the liquidation and liquidators are appointed by the President plunge full such functions and proceed according to the law. Such dissolution and liquidation shall be governed by the provisions of Article 12 of Law 520 (Mod. In the Act 666 of 1982).

PARAGRAPH I: The property forming part of the Foundation at the time of dissolution and liquidation of the same, will be donated to the following institutions listed below in the following proportions:

Cultural Center of Spain 25% (twenty-five percent) Museum of Modern Art 25% (twenty-five percent) National School of Fine Arts 50% (fifty percent)

Article 40. The membership certificates are issued and delivered within no more than sixty (60) days from the contributions made ​​to the Foundation

Article 41. The Foundation will have a log book in which the names are recorded, profession and address of the members as well as the loss of membership; a Record Book that all movable and immovable property belonging to the Foundation shall be recorded.

DONE AND SIGNED in seven (7) copies of the same tenor, in the city of Santo Domingo, National District, capital of the Dominican Republic, today in March 2005.

The Painter, José Gausachs

The perspective in which we are placed by this end of century, which is also an end of millennium, dominated, with respect to the development of visual arts, for the ambiguous and fugitive sign of the so called postmodernism, makes furthermore interesting and attractive the figure of Joseph Gausachs, an artist who already in the thirties of this century was ” back from all the vanguards “, after close contact with the most select of the Parisian artistic elite , which allowed him to assimilate his freedom, skills and techniques, without accepting the limitations of none of his dogmatism.

An artist, in addition, who far from separating from his roots, deepening in the Catalan tradition not only of the impressionism of Casas and Rusiñol, and, as the critic Manuel Valdeperes said, of “the sober magnificence of Nonell”, but even from the  Romanesque sacred austerity, managed to develop a personal language of his own with which he was able to catch on his linen an unpublished perception of the tropical Caribbean light.

From His Childhood in Sarriá To His First Parisian Experience

Joseph Gausachs Armengol was born on the 1st of May, 1889 in the population of Sarriá, which later became a poor district of Barcelona, In the care of a accommodated middle-class family. A childhood and a youth that should have developed without any problems were  nevertheless, darkened by adversities such as the ones he knew to overcome, like a trepanation he suffered at the age of eleven  that produced a paralysis to almost half of his face.

Subsequently, a spark of a  stone wounded his retina and almost lost the vision of one of his eyes. This fatality did not become an obstacle for qweryu  his artistic vocation consolidated by the formation obtain by studying in the Academy Baixas and in the Academy of Fine Arts of the Lotjía, and receiving also, according to Rafael Benet, some influence of the call “school of Sarriá, in which the great artist Towers Garcia “. lefts his foot steps.

That academic teaching, as routineful as it might seem to us, contributed with two key elements that provided solidity to the already  mature talents of Gausachs; those  were, his authentic technical virtuosity, which he did not obtain but simply perfected in Paris, and his established sense of discipline and diligence, that never diminish, not even during the last  years of his life, when his health became a little delicate.

One of his professors, Félix Mestre, said about Gausachs; “intelligent and skillful, tempered his academicism with a discrete dose of creed impressionism”. According to account one of the biographers of Gausachs, A. Junyent. Mestre had  the ability to discover, among his students, which had authentic talent, and was exactly what occurred with Gausachs, who became his disciple favorite, and became his assistant for paintings of murals.

But even out of the academy they did not lack the intellectual stimuli. Was the Barcelona of ends of the 19th century and principles of the XX, where, according to the same author, they took a seat “the impressionism of Rusiñol and of Houses, the intellectual anarchism of Pedro Corominas, the architecture of Gaudí, the poetry and the music of Maragall, to Die and Pedrell, the theater of Guime-rá and Puig i Ferrater, the novels of Narcissist Oller and of Pompey Gener, with their petulant hat of musketeer and the prestige of to have been a lover of Sarah Bernhard. General headquarters of the revolucionarismo modernist was the bar ‘Els Quatre Gats’, by where appeared frequently a young one flacucho and shaggy, enthusi

It provided of an avid and awake sensibility and of a solid technical discipline, the artist was transferred to Paris at the moment of the boom of the Cubism and the Fauvism. where would find him the crash of the First World War.

The Gentleman Of Montparnasse

Installed in Montparnasse. Gausachs enjoyed the narrow contact and the stimulating exchange of ideas and enthusiasm with the best-known among the artists of its time, like Modigliani (of whose work was converted with the time in an authentic expert). Gargallo. Utrillo. Juan Gray. Chirico. Fujita. Picasso. Marquet. Bracque. Marc Chagall.

He then passes from impressionism to Cubism,  Dadaism, Surrealism…  from this last one he was attracted above all by the practice of the dactilism and the special sensibility for capturing the fantastic and magical side of things that never abandoned him  and is found on  the root of all aspects of his peculiar vision of the Caribbean world which possibly even had an influence on Wolfredo Lam.

From the expressionism and the neoexpresionismo he took, perhaps, some of the most characteristic traces of his style. Nervous tremulous graphics, that at the same time were gifted with energetic crafted and secure sinthesis that affirms without doubts the integrity of the object, without concessions to divisionism but that Paradoxicaly incorporates the tonal sensibility and the serene luminous lyricism of the impressionistic models. Especially on the painting of landscapes, of which Jose Gausachs was a consummate master.

The gentleman of Montparnasse”, nickname with wich Josep Gausachs  was known back then in that small artistic Parisian world, at the time he worked with a reduced palette , of white, black, blue cobalt, yellow cadmium and emerald. which were sufficient for him to reach the enthusiastic compliment of the critics, including the remarkable critics of. Pernaud, art critic of “L´lntransigeant”, who affirmed then that Josep Gausachs painted “with the colors of the French flag”, with that typical tendency of considering and absorbing the foreign talents during his time in French grounds and developing and making it  his own.. Charensol, from “Les Nouvelles Literaires”, did not remain behind he considers the artist as one of the finest representatives of the school of painting, and the same can be told about Christian Zervos and Waldemar George.

At the moment of Gausachs, the manifesto compliment of Picasso and of Albert Marquet, were also there.  who stood before one of its pictures admitting: “¡This picture had wanted it to paint I!” Finally Tristán Tzara expressed growth to the quality of the man and of the artist that was Josep Gausachs, giving him an and a box of paintings, that still conserve, as a valuable relic, the relatives of the Catalonian painter.

Gausachs exposed repeatedly in Paris, in the galleries of They go Ogen. Pierre and Vidrach, and in Brussels and Amsterdam. Little by little a reputation in growing boom managed to work, and that had given still more yielded fruits if had remained in Paris al to finish the World War, in an exceptional moment of inflation of the prices in the artistic market. For it counted already with proposed attractions of various acquaintances “marchands of tableaux”. But family obligations would oblige to return to the City Condal, with what a new chapter of its life was initiated and its work.

The Mediterranean Light

Of return in Barcelona, Gausachs was dedicated to the docencia in the Academy of Fine Arts, where would teach the technique of the repujado of the for sixteen years, technical leather that knew to the perfection by to have dedicated to its practice during its continuance in Paris, al time that painted and carried out expositions.

Also in Spain their activity expositora was it sufficient important by the quality and the quantity so that the press and the criticism of the thirties in Catalonia and in Spain they assigned him a noticeable place. The historian of the art Juan Antonio Merry Ñuño did not doubt in considering it as one of the most representative examples of the Catalonian school of painting during the first half of the 20th century. All which he does paradoxical, although not less certain, the affirmation of Manuel Trens that Gausachs had not left to be, in its land, “a great stranger”. Opinion this that expressed in the catalogue of a retrospective that to posthumous title dedicated him in 1964 the gallery of art Syra, of Barcelona.

This great oversight was owed, without doubt, to personal and political circumstances. Gausachs was converted, owed al crash of the civil War of 1936, in another of so many intellectuals and artists that formed part of that “Spain of the Exodus” and to which the culture of the America Spanish owes a recognition that barely now is valuing itself in its just measure. The absence and the subsequent silence they erased during years the memory of a work of exceptional quality. But possibly it have contributed also al relative ignorance of Gausachs by the new generations in Spain (another thing is the Dominican Republic, where worked during two decades and several generations of artists recognize it with pride as their indisputable teacher) the same independence and nobility of their character, alien to the lobbies and the advertising management that so much they abound in the world of the art, producing by the treta and the Prestiges so fulgurantes as unwarranted and, likewise, ephemeral.

After a first exposition in the Galleries Dalmau, to which the criticism of the epoch attributed a certain one decorativismo, in recent months of 1931 Gausachs presented in Galleries Layetanas a collection of drawings to the watered down one, some colored, of landscapes of the Valley of I Throw, in the aragonese Pyrenee, that the newspaper “The Publicitat” of December eleven characterizes as “subjective glosses of a fugitive vision qualified Expressionism tempered by a sentimental abandonment”. In them trasparecen those shades neorrománticos that some have wanted to see later in Gausachs, and that are guaranteed in the work of an artist that, as consigned Rafael Benet November 26 in “Window”, already was known by the from barcelona criticism as a “divisionista”, that covered its fabrics, like those of Dalmau, with pinceladas long and vertical; Later as a “fauve” creative of images amosaicadas, and, Finally, by a brief time, like the surrealist. Benet did not doubt, therefore, of the notably restless character of Gausachs neither of an Europeanism of the one that gave faith their Parisian successes, but considered opportune to add that the fabrics and drawings of their more recent production of then showed that besides a man of their time, and to be it truly. Gausachs had some deep and indisputable roots in its own tradition.

In February of 1932 exposed again, now paintings, and in the Even Room. Ráfols. Benet. F. V. Foix spoke then of “neofauvismo” in the painting of Gausachs. or of a “beating of the Fauvism enriched, besides, by a personal vision”, Foix. Or “Focius”, is converted then in the angriest defender of the work of Gausachs. The exposition of the Even Room is converted then in the pretext for the celebration of a homage al artist in the “Lyon d’ Or”, al that attended, among others, the critical Sebastián Gasch. Foix and Benet. the artists Grau Room. Fenosa Obiols. Besides J. A. Maragall and the poet Decay Ribas, who dedicated a poem al honored.

But besides the twenty-seven cloths of the Even Room, that understood above all landscapes and figures. Gausachs present was done that year in the from barcelona artistic world by its participation in the “Parlor of Montjui’ c”. Where the press names him among the “master” such as Caries, Mercado Labarta, Domingo y Pidelaserra.

In 1934 and 1935 Guasachs exposed landscapes of Ibiza and Majorca, where was painting and working the art of the vitral,and respectively, of Collicabra. The strong brightness of the mediterranean landscape, that without gradations neither shades, as affirmed a critic (A. Flat, of “The Vanguard”), puts in the first plan all the objects, without “half measures”, “brutally”, is assumed with the same accuracy perceptual that the fogs and variations infinitesimales that in their previous landscapes define it as a virtuous one of the tonal appraisal.

Also it exposed, like the balearic islands, in Valencian Galenas, the landscapes of Collicabra manage to maintain, by the tonal precision of the pincelada, all the luminous vibration of the atmosphere. A tone a the more dramatic and contrasted is shown in the still lifes of then, like that of “The Bleda”. of 1934, presented by the artist in the Parlor of Montjui’ c of that year, and that immediately was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art of Catalonia.

A cromatismo that avoids always the estridencia, but never the harmonización audacious of blue and red brilliant, a pincelada long and spontaneous, a sure drawing and fluid, they corroborate the impression of maturity that the painting of Gausachs produces then in the criticism of the epoch, and that culminates funnily in their pictures of flowers, that have all the joy and the coolness of those of Redon.

Also in 1935 it exposes Gausachs in the Room Bigas and in Vic. Does not it leave for then to enter in the art of the portrait, often with romantic unpleasant aftertaste, or doing gala of compositeimagination and of grace, as in which did of its ancestors.  Neither the works abstraccionistas of their last period in Holy Sunday lack precedents in their from barcelona phase. Gausachs not itself supeditó never to dogmatism of school, and much less to self-imposed limitations, what does not do impossible a differentiation of periods in its work, but whenever this be understood inside a notable fluency, being maintained continuously and through the changes a notable unit of the style that does not do more than translating, without proposing it to him, the personality of the creator, and “the emotion”, that contraryly It sought by Bracque, and in harmony with Juan Gray, to should “to correct to the rule”.

Also during the thirties participated Gausachs in Spain in importantes collective expositions, as that of Catalonian painters organized by the newspaper “The Herald of Madrid”, or the exposition-contest that carried out the Museum of Decorative Arts of Montjuich, dedicated to views of Montserrat of Catalonian painters, where a fabric that harmonized blue and luminous roses showed once more its indisputable talent of colorist.

The Civil War and the concentration camps

But again the destiny twists the course of the life of Josep Gausachs. Their they known republican loyalty and their liberal mood and progressive they could not be arranged with the state arisen of the civil War of 1936-1939. Al serious danger that ran their life themselves most greatest the police repression that even complicated the conservation of part of their work.

After being in fields of French concentration, especially in Narbonne, its friends manage to find it, and finally could flee in the ship “Cuba“, when already World War Two had been initiated, bound for America, and in company of its son Francisco, who would also be a painter and professor of painting.

That migration in which intended to give priority to the farmers, with the ones that was sought to populate the bordering zone of Holy Sunday with Haiti, carried to the small republic antillana a considerable number of intellectuals and artists. The more, they went in a not greater time limit of five years, not without leaving before a lasting track in the cultural life of the nation. Gausachs, that according to Vicente Llorens was, among the artists, “the best-known one and of greater age”, remained in the island, save a temporary stay in Venezuela, in 1945, to its death happened July 26, 1959.

Exile and another sea

January eleven, therefore, of 1940, Gausachs was found in Holy Sunday. Its first participation documented in an exposition is in that of private character and celebrated in the residence of the naval aggregate of the legation of the Embassy of the United States in the Dominican Republic, July 31, 1942 , and that was dedicated to contemporary Spanish painting. Granell contributed a landscape al Silver Port oil, al north of the island, and two drawings, that added to six works of Eugenio Fernández Granell, and seven of the muralist José Watches Zanetti, also exiled in Holy Sunday..

This same year participated in the First Biennial Exposition of Plastic Arts that was celebrated in the country, and al following year in an of Self-portraits, kind that cultivated with certain frequency and extraordinary results, and with the one that the National Gallery of Fine Arts was inaugurated, that so much signified for the Dominican art of the forties.

In 1944 it participated in an exposition that organized the Commission of Spanish Refugees for the Commemoration of the Centennial of the Dominican Republic, and that presided the eminent criminal lawyer Constancio Bernaldo of Quirós, besides the Biennial Second of Plastic Arts, where gained the Third Prize, that was the corresponding one to the category of landscape, by its oil “Haina”.

That same year was named professor of the National School of Fine Arts, that had been inaugurated in August of 1942 with a faculty constituted in its greater part by European teachers exiled, so much Spanish republican like Central European Jews. Slightly more than a year later, and al to return of a temporary stay in Venezuela, Gausachs was named deputy director of the School, and subsequently the direction he was offered him, that did not accept.

Also in 1944, of January 30 al 15 of February, he carried out his first individual exposition in Holy Sunday, which reseña the Dominican so much press as the newspapers of him exiled Spaniards, calling attention to the great affluence of public. This sample, fundamentally of landscapes, the discovery he shows us of “another sea”, the Caribbean, by this man of the Mediterranean, previously fascinated by the coastal landscapes and the sun of the Balearic islands.

His Visit to Caracas Venezuela

In 1945 resided for some time in Venezuela, where exposed in the Museum of The Caobos and was celebrated extensively by the criticism as the representative of the impresionismo Spanish. In 1948 it participated with a work out of contest, that nevertheless was rewarded, in it I SAW National Biennial of Arts Plastics of the Dominican Republic. He declined public and kindly the honor, alleging that since a time ago had the custom of participating in the Biennials only ‘out of contest”.

In 1953 it did Gausachs an exposition in the Institute Cultural American Dominican where presented, among others things, his first studies on the black art, possibly the first also, that carried out an artist in the Dominican Republic. In 1954 he presented a retrospective, already. in the French Alliance. In 1953 he had participated in said central in two collective organized by the National Circle of Artists, that in 1954 member of the jury of the contest of art named it that celebrated in the Institute Cultural American Dominican.

In October also of 1954 participated in an exposition of religious art that the group catholic Apse organized in the parlors of the Dominican literary Society. It is of the major interest the ingenuous and expressive religious art of Gausachs. in which Manuel Three has detected typologies iconográficas deep-rooted in the Romanesque one, like the Virgin that maintains in arms to a Christ with childlike size, but proportions and face of adult.

In 1955 Gausachs he was included in an important international exposition organized by the literary Society of Caracas, where he represented to the Dominican Republic along with his more next disciple. Gilberto Hernández Ortega, and Jaime Colson, a Dominican that according to Lourdes Cirlot had some influence on the group Dau al Set in his beginnings, and was great friend of Tharrats. Exposition that included works of Léger, Hartung, Soulages. Vasarely, Magritte, Petorutti. Diego Rivera. Candid Portinari. Lam. Rouault, Picasso. Bores. Pelayo, Siquei-ros, Guayasamín.

 In the work of Gausachs in Holy Sunday, and according to Naescher, its main collector, a Swiss that possesses near a hundred drawings and paintings of the artist, and that obtained of André Breton two drawings of Picasso in exchange for one of Gausachs, is possible to indicate four “phases” in the production of Gausachs. These are a first one dedicated al landscape, a second referred to the figures of black and mulatas, the third, that radicalizes the tendency to the synthesis that characterizes not only its Dominican period, but the work of all its life, and, finally, the upset toward the abstraction of the end of its life. Although in the case of Gausachs, we think that there is not an abstraction but several: that of very schematic works that can be included in which has been given in calling “paisajismo abstract”, that of works as “Swamp Party”, of 1955, or “Sputrik”, of 1957, where is visible the track, in which belongs to the estructuración spatial, of the Cubism or the constructivism, or, in short, the abstractions like an of Collection of Jorge Gausachs where a galloping graphics, of rhythm tormented and overwhelming as that of a Pollock or a Michaux, they link it with the automatism or the abstract expressionism.

His Last Years

But among its more characteristic works they are, clear is, the landscapes. Exactly Gausachs was in Holy landscapes painting professor Sunday, and its expert eye distinguished with clarity the shades that differentiated the rustic landscapes of the southwest from the of the South region of the island, rich in ocres, or the most tender tones of the North region and head Office of the Cibao. It created an image of the tropic, like they knew to see the critical Manuel Valdeperes and Rafael Díaz Niese, that broke the topic of the estridencias chromatic, to be inclined toward a lyrical vision of the light. A peculiar optic phenomenon that has been confused often with fogs, typical of the tropical tomorrows, is that of a silver brightness that comes dissolve, by its same intensity, the forms and the colors.

The eye of the foreigner, as knew to note Valdeperes, is more apt than that of the-native to detect that reality (and more the eye of a man of the Mediterranean), of a “light that hidden, and a darkness that reveals”, as sage aims María Commotion-Not, in an unforgettable trial on Wilfredo Lam, as own of the Caribbean. Among the painters of the area, we think that only the Venezuelan Reverán has been capable of carrying out and to radicalize that perception of the Caribbean light..

Also the figures of black and mulatas of Gausachs, that someone has considered descending islanders of the gypsies of Nonell, they deserve to be mentioned as definition, beyond the individual portrait, of an authentic native type in which the crookedness of the line collects all a repertoire of variant psychological, the sadness, the laxity, the freedom, the challenge, the erotic seduction or the -mystery of the instinctive thing. It inhabits in them a he, an effervescence of life, that the distance determined of the a lot more hieratic than conceived another exiled Spaniard, Angel Botello, very influenced by Gauguin.

Not less important it is an iconología of vegetations and figures, of manglar, fish and fantastic animals that define all a fantastic and magic vision of the Caribbean that revives, in key tenebrista, in Gilberto Hernández Ortega and possibly in Lam. You figure and form flat and synthetic, trimmed by thick dark lines, they carry us, as the Romanesque iconography That the painter knew so well, beyond the empirical space that denotes the Renaissance perspective to another absolutely numinoso where the art, like preconiza Klee, does visible the invisible thing.

Nevertheless all the appreciations and classifications should be handled with care, offering them sufficient fluency, in the case of the work of Gausachs. Other notable characteristics of their production are, on the one hand, the abundance of works of small format, and carried out with costly little materials, like pencils of childlike color, waxes, charcoal and sanguinas, besides gouaches, watercolors, watered down, ink and pastel, and by another its grandísima influence on the generations of Dominican painters that were its disciples: a Dominican critic has said that the history of the art of the country is able Before and after Gausachs. We corroborate without any doubt that affirmation, adding that the Catalonian painter is not the unique one, but yes the major responsible one for that today, if he can be spoken of a “national school”, in the Dominican painting, that is the expressionism, no matter how more the expressionism of Gausachs always was moderated by an elegance that did not admit neither by I appear the bombastic thing or him efectista.

He remains today, above all, his ethical copy felt of the work of the artist, his love al I work, his consequent independence, without poses neither boastings, without concessions, just as has underlined repeatedly his main collector, Naeseher, to commercial seductions. Gausachs never he painted for assignment, neither he wanted to sell their works, not even very well full, to people that him did not please.

Since their death they have been dedicated him several retrospectives: in Holy Sunday, in the House of Spain in 1963, two in the Gallery of Modern Art in the seventies and an in the Cafarelli, and in 1983 in the City of the Artists of High of Chavón. Another in 1964 in the Gallery Syra of Barcelona, that already in 1950 had dedicated him, in life of the artist, a retrospective that can be considered as the start of the rediscovery of Gausachs in Spain. We expect that these lines contribute al same, so much like the transfer of a series from among 80 and 240 drawings that the collector Partagés yielded al Museum of Modern Art of Barcelona. To a street of Holy Sunday, besides, him was given, like homage, the name of Josep Gausachs.

A metaphysics of the light, like factor that determines the step of the forms and the beings by the threshold of the real thing, went developing gradually as background of the work of Gausachs. As many artists that passed through the surrealism, experienced, above all in its fantasies around the forms of the manglares antillanos, the step of the onirismo to the fantastic thing. “When the reality becomes fiction -wrote al margin of one of its drawings-, the obsession is confused with the same reality.”