Olot school

The School of Olot ( Catalan: Escola d' Olot ) denotes a significant Catalonia and Spain landscape painting school, which in the second half of the 19th century by the painter Joaquim Vayreda ( 1843-1894 ) was founded. It includes all the artists who have used the landscape of Olot as the primary source of inspiration for her work. In this school there was a lot of freedom in terms of style, technique and art direction. In many ways similar to the French landscape painting Barbizon School, the school of Olot waived similarly to the traditional studio painting and studied directly in nature for new forms of expression. The painters came in their art to the demands of the middle class for a realistic art, which should radiate elegance, optimism and love at the same time, counter. The preferred medium of this art was the painting, especially landscape painting. Here the origin of the school of Olot is with their significant tradition of realistic landscape painting and the generally great art tradition of the city of Olot. The Museu de la Garrotxa Comarcal in Olot offers an excellent overview of the works of this landscape painting school.

The history

End of the 18th century, at a time when economic recovery and renewed focus on political Catalanism and against the backdrop of the French Enlightenment began a supported by the bourgeoisie upturn in the art. This culminated in 1783 in Olot in the creation of a public art school, the Escola de Dibuix d' Olot ( " drawing school of Olot "). The original goal was probably the training of artists and craftspeople for the religious folk art. The first director of the school Joan Carles Pano (1755-1840), trained nor in the neoclassical style of art in Barcelona itself, already blew up in his time both the context of the contemporary academic as well as the framework of the given folk art.

The actual start

As the actual founder of the school of Olot applies the painter Joaquim Vayreda. His first paintings were characterized by a very strong naturalistic tendency. Later he changed his concept and experimented especially with the representation of light and color variations in the representation of the landscape of Olot. The work Joaquim Vayredas have his brother Marià Vayreda and other painters such as Laureà Barrau, Enric Galwey, Joan Brull, Josep Masriera, Modest Urgell, Ramon Casas and Santiago Rusiñol artistically drawn into the spell and thus to Olot to the many aspects of this landscape in new forms to capture on canvas.

The institutionalization of school

A institutionalization learned the painting school, especially because of the painter and teacher of movement Josep Berga, the director of the company founded by Joaquim Vayreda 1869 Centre Artístic -Cultural d' Olot ( " cultural and artistic center of Olot "). Hill took over from 1877 to 1914, the line of the above Escola de Dibuix d' Olot ( " drawing school of Olot "). Through the annual exhibitions, the school gained an increasing awareness and celebrity status. First, these exhibitions were organized by the Centre Artístic -Cultural and performed later other institutions in the city were involved herein. In 1934, under the direction of Iu Pascual ( 1914-1936 ) art school in the rank of an art academy with the exact designation was: Escola Superior de Paisatge a Olot ( " Academy of landscape painting in Olot " ) levied. Even under all of the following conductors such as Martí Casadevall (1932-1951), Bartomeu Mas i Collellmir (1961-1969) and Joan Vilà i Moncau (1969-1984) many famous artists have been trained that ensured the continuity of the school of Olot. 1942 after the Spanish Civil War all the arts and crafts institutions of the city in the Escola de Belles Arts i Oficis ( " Academy of Fine Arts and the arts and crafts " ) have been combined. There was a return to the roots of Olotenser school, a return to landscape painting instead. Finally, some of the graduates be mentioned that currently play in the Catalan art life with their works an important role: Lluis Carbonell, J. Pujol, Josep Berga i Boada, Josep Clarà, Melcior Domenge, Josep Pinós, Joaquim Farjas, G. Devesa, R. Llimona, Joaquim Marsillach, Pere Gussinyé, Vicenç Solé, Lluís Gómez, Sebastià Congost, Ángel Codinach, Jordi Curós, Marià Oliveras.