Joan Cruspinera

Self portrait original oil on canvas painting

c.1980

Joan Cruspinera Muñoz was born in 1945 in Tiana, Barcelona. This Catalan artist is a painter, draftsman and painter. His training is extensive and international, since he is endorsed by a curriculum of studies all over the world. He studied engraving in Salzburg, at the Academy of Fine Arts, then continued his training in Paris, at the Friedlander workshop, Cité Internationale des Arts, he received a scholarship from the French Institute of Barcelona and painted in Paris, he also obtained scholarships from the Círculo de Bellas Artes of Madrid, of the Hispanic North American Committee of Madrid and of the Goethe Institut of Barcelona, ​​and worked in London, New York and Berlin. His first exhibition was in 1966. He has exhibited in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Madrid, Zurich, Colonia, Weimar, Barcelona, ​​Norway or Palma de Mallorca, among others. The National Calcography awarded him the National Engraving Prize for the best printed work, and he also obtained the National Engraving Prize for his activity as an engraver. Some of his most recent exhibitions were in Norway, in Lithuania at the National Museum of Ciurlionis Art in Kaunas, and at the Pilar y Joan Miró Foundation in Palma de Mallorca. In an interview, he spoke about his beginnings in the world of painting: “From the age of fourteen, I worked in the world of advertising, until I was able to free myself financially and start painting with complete dedication at twenty-five. And during the last ten years there has been a beginning of self-study with some academy, although very little, since I worked all day. I went to Fine Arts, I did an exam, but never in a career plan. At the beginning I had an advertising baggage of trickery, of illustration, that I could have used to apply it to painting. But I saw that it was not the way. So I went to what was close to me: impressionist painting, Nonell, Catalan painting. As soon as I could, I began to travel, see and study painting in depth. Being interested in everything and not theorizing it involved a lot of work, effort. If I was interested, for example, in surrealism, I would work on it, etc. "