Industrial Natural Specimens

An Impressive Cast Iron floor sculpture by Josep Maria Subirachs, circa 1960s. Reminiscent in form to an arrowhead or primitive blade. Josep incorporated grattage leaving the surface rough and jagged. Signed along the lower edge. From the private collection of Vincent and Elana Bolling. The Bollings were philanthropists and advocates for the performing and visual arts. JOSEP MARIA SUBIRACHS SITJAR was born on March 11, 1927 in Barcelona. From the age of nine to the age of twelve he experienced the tragic events of the Spanish Civil War, the overthrow of the Republican government in 1939 and the beginning of the Franco regime. Born into a working class family in the Barcelona district of Poblenou, the precarious economic situation suffered during the post-war period forced him to renounce studying architecture and he began working at the workshop of a gilder and amateur sculptor when he was just fourteen years old. By then, he was already modeling clay figures which he used to bring to the furnace at a local roof tile factory. From 1942 to 1947 he worked as an apprentice under the sculptor Enric Monjo at his workshop, acquiring technical skills. But the person who taught him most profoundly was Enric Casanovas, with whom he worked for a brief period because, unfortunately, the 'Noucentista' died in January 1948, just a fews months after Subirachs entered his workshop as a collaborator.The influence of Casanovas is apparent in the young sculptor...

1930s leather medicine ball, nice color and patina.