Nadal, Carlos
Carlos Nadal was born in 1917 in a small beach town beside Barcelona, called Sitges, although he spent his early childhood living in Paris, until the age of four when his dad got sick and had to return to Barcelona. At the age of 13, he got accepted to the School of Arts La Llotja and later at the Fine Art Superior School. After the civil war he continued studying at Sant Jordi where he collaborated with Miquel Fané creating Murals for different Catalan churches. Having already obtained the Fortuny and Masriera awards, he had his first exhibition in 1942 at La Pinacoteca in Barcelona.
After an extended stay in Paris, he exhibited again in Barcelona in 1945. When he married in 1949, he moved to Brussels, where he lived until 1959. Upon his return to Spain, he built a studio in Sitges, where he resided until his death. However, he continued to have regular exhibitions in Brussels, Antwerp, London, Düsseldorf, Amsterdam, Zurich, Madrid and other European and American cities. While exhibiting from 1971, every two years at Sala Parés.
His painting connect with both the vibrant and exalted French coloristic tradition (the fauves) and with the Mediterranean luminositiy and playful sense of the catalan landscape. His themes reveal his solar and positive character: beaches, port views, horse races, interiors, gardens, urban landscapes, scenes represented with invariable profusion of anecdotes, objects and narrative details. But behind this, there is an essentially pictorial content of rhythms and colors that bring out the abstract values of a living, spontaneous painting without prejudice. The lines flow with a carefree elegance. The brushstrokes are fast and direct like a child’s drawing, creating the meaning, dynamic, flexibility of the outline and apparent naiveté of the diction.