Joan Ponç was a Spanish painter who represented the avant-garde of the Spanish post-war period. He participated at the foundation of the artistic movement Dau al Set.
Background
Joan Ponç was born on November 28, 1927, in Sarrià, Barcelona, Spain to a middle class family which was left by his father shortly before his birth.
His younger brother named Antonio appeared three years later, and his younger sister Marisol came in 1936 and María Rosa – in 1944. The latter did not survive her twelve years.
Education
Joan Ponç entered the Salesian College of San Antonio de Padua in Mataró 1940 and left it in 1942.
The next year, he pursued his artistic training at the atelier of the painter Ramón Rogent. Later, he also received some painting lessons from Angel López-Obrero at the Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelona.
Career
Joan Ponç began his artistic career at the age of nineteen when he presented his artworks at his debut solo exhibition at the La Sala de Arte de Bilbao. Since then, the young artist was involved in the Spanish circle of artists and got acquinted with many of them, like the philosopher Arnaud Puig, the poet Joan Brossa and the painters Antoni Tàpies and Joan Joseph Tharrats. In 1948, along with Ponç they became participants of the newly founded group Dau al Set.
The same year, Ponç met Salvador Dali and Joan Miro who had a great influence on his later work. The latter master advised his young colleague to spend some time in Paris.
After that short stint, the artist came to São Paulo, Brazil at the beginning of the 1950s, where he took part at the São Paulo Biennale of 1955. The exposition provided Ponç with a grant which allowed him to establish the art school called L'Espai and an artistic group Taüll. The latter gathered such artists as Marc Aleu, Modest Cuixart, Josep Guinovart, Jaume Muxart, Jaume Mercadé, Antoni Tàpies and Joan-Josep Tharrats. A year later, the painter exhibited at the Museum of Modern Arts of São Paulo.
Joan Ponç came back to his homeland in 1963 and then participated in many expositions held in Europe and the United States, including René Metras Gallery in Barcelona in 1964 and a retrospective at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1978.