JOAN PONÇ BONET (Barcelona, 1927 - Saint-Paul, France, 1984). Untitled, 1947. Ink on paper. Signed in the lower left corner. Work published in the artist s online catalogue raisonné, ref. 1979. Size: 55 x 43.7 cm; 82 x 71 cm (frame). In this composition, full of cryptic emblems, Joan Ponç s imaginary is synthesised in all its alchemical splendour. During the 1940s, the period to which this painting belongs, Ponç s plastic universe was already beginning to be nourished by premonitory visions and hunches, giving shape to a clairvoyant, mystical and existential language. The perspective of time has reaffirmed the relevance and exceptionality of his work, as well as the intensity of his voice and the need for its rediscovery. A painter and draughtsman, Joan Ponç trained in Barcelona, in the studio of Ramón Rogent and at the Academy of Plastic Arts with Ángel López-Obrero. After devoting himself to painting and drawing in anonymity, he held his first individual exhibition in 1946 at the Galería Arte in Bilbao, which was to mark his definitive establishment on the national art scene. In 1948, together with Tharrats, Puig, Cuixart, Tàpies and Brossa, among others, he founded the avant-garde group Dau al Set. Selected by Eugenio D Ors, he took part in the Salón de los Once in Madrid in 1951 and 1952. In 1952 he took part in the Hispano-American Biennial, and the following year he spent some time in Paris, where he met Joan Miró and managed to exhibit at the Musée de la Villa. On the latter s recommendation, Ponç gained access to Brazilian artistic circles, settling in São Paulo from 1953 to 1962. In 1954, the year Dau al Set disbanded, he held an exhibition at the city s Museum of Modern Art, with such success that the organisation acquired all his works. In Brazil he visited the equatorial jungles, where he was impressed by their fauna, especially insects, which he incorporated into his imagery. In 1955 he founded the Taüll group with Marc Aleu, Modest Cuixart, Jaume Guinovart, Jaume Muxart, Mercadé, Tàpies and Tharrats. After returning to Catalonia due to illness, as a fully established artist he shows his work in New York, Rio de Janeiro, Bonn, Paris, Frankfurt, Geneva, Antibes and various Spanish cities. In 1965 he won the International Grand Prize for Drawing at the São Paulo Biennial. Ponç s paintings present phantasmagoric images that are both painful and tortured, in which the subconscious is the protagonist. For the painter, art is nothing more than an introduction to the mystery and secrets of the spirit. More of a draughtsman than a painter, his work is extremely detailed and meticulous. Ponç s production can be divided into six periods: the Dau al Set period (1947), the Brazilian period (1958), the metaphysical-geometric period (1969), the period of the metaphysical characters (1970), the acupainting period (1971) and a final period of synthesis (1972). He is currently represented at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de la Universidad de São Paulo, the Museo Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, the MACBA in Barcelona, the Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo in Vitoria, the Museo de L Empordà and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.