The exhibition Toni Catany, At the Heart of his Oeuvre, presented by Galerie &co119 has been postponed. Here is an overview.
Toni Catany (Llucmajor 1942 – Barcelona 2013) developed and perfected his artistic singularity in the 1980s by fusing his emotions and enchantments with the subtle language of flowers. He brought forth still life images in color, which confirmed him as a master of the genre and which, thanks to a book published by Lunwerg in 1987, brought him to the attention of the public at large. He infused these works with his appreciation of all forms of glass, pottery and assorted precious or ordinary objects discovered at markets or in antique shops.
The end of the Franco dictatorship (1975) and the easing of censorship allowed Catany to break free and to introduce suggestive male nudes into his creative universe. He excelled at isolating them from their surroundings and, through personal alchemy, illuminating their bodies in a way that rendered them timeless, he transformed them, gifting them with a magical eternity.
From 1994, Catany produced portraits which he transferred during printing onto 100 percent cotton paper. The process of photographing (fixing the look and presence of a model), together with manipulations in the laboratory gave the images a special quality which could be appropriated, modelled and projected into time in suspension.
More than 120 personal exhibitions demonstrated this creator’s savoir-faire and his aesthetic palette. Honored as a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France in 1991, Toni Catany received Spain’s National Photography Prize in 2001.
*Text written by Pierre Borhan.
&co119
119 rue Vieille du Temple
75003 PARIS
