Jesus Carlos de Vilallonga

Jesus Carlos de Vilallonga

Jesus Carlos de Vilallonga  has built “an undeniably personal world where nature and artifice blend into a metamorphosis, not just limited to a presentation of the world’s beautiful side, but also its most mysterious secret emanation into the interior and exterior reality of a world which has gone beyond the physical and penetrated the psyche.”*

Jesus Carlos de Vilallonga was born in Girona, Spain in 1927. In 1949 he studied at the Sant Jordi School of Fine Arts in Barcelona. In 1952 he left for Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts . In 1954 he left Paris and returned to Barcelona. In 1955, he made his way to Montreal and stayed in the apartment of his sister. Vilallonga painted watercolours of Montreal houses which he often succeeded in selling to their owners.*

Vilallonga met Giorgio di Carlo, a painter and decorator, who introduced him to the bohemian artistic community of Montreal at the L’Echouerie. This was a meeting place for artists such as Jean-Paul Mousseau and Guido Molinari, and sculptors Robert Roussil and Armand Vaillancourt. It was the center of several historical events for the avant-garde arts community of Montreal. In 1958, Max Stern of Montreal’s most prestigious gallery, Dominion Gallery, viewed Vilallonga’s work in a Montreal restaurant and bought twenty of twenty-four paintings that the artist brought from Paris. Dr. Stern offered Vilallonga an exclusive contract with Dominion Gallery, Vilallonga accepted his offer. He could finally dedicate himself to painting. He remained affiliated with Dominion Gallery for the next thirty years, until the death of Max Stern.*

Jesus Carlos de Vilallonga had one man shows at the Dominion Gallery practically every year until Max Stern’s death. Rodolphe de Repentigny of La Presse, Montreal, reviewed Vilallonga’s first exhibition in 1959, Vilallonga “is above all an image maker, each of his paintings is a genre scene, he knows too well how to apply to his advantage a spectacular brushwork and anecdotes which a large part of the public craves.” Throughout his career with Dominion Gallery, Max Stern arranged for Vilallonga to exhibit his work at commercial galleries in the United States, London, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Berlin, Rome, and Vienna.*

By the end of the 1960’s, Vilallonga had managed to live most of his career in Barcelona and Cadaques, while spending three months a year in Montreal. He continued to have consistent exhibitions in Montreal with Max Stern, while also having very successful shows in Barcelona in the 70’s. After Max Stern’s death in 1988 (the artist’s agent Dominion Gallery, Montreal), Vilallonga decided to permanently move back to Spain, however, he continues to show his work at other galleries in Montreal and across Quebec. In 1992, the artist and his wife spent a year in Syracuse, New York, where Vilallonga studied sculpture under Rodger Mack and produced several bronze and aluminum sculptures at the Syracuse University foundry. The couple returned to Barcelona where Vilallonga worked for the next twenty years at his two studios in the Raval and became integrated in the social milieu of the Ramblas. The last five years of his life, he worked on large scale drawings at their home, until his death in 2018.*

Jesús Carles de Vilallonga’s paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings are the subject of numerous books and documentaries and are in museums, universities, and private collections throughout the world. His extensive body of work has been exhibited in individual exhibitions at the Lefevre Gallery in London, Sagittarius Gallery in New York, Galería Juana Mordó in Madrid, Art Contemporain in Paris, Dau al Set in Barcelona, and multiple galleries in Canada. Retrospectives of his work were held at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza in California in 2000, the Parisian Laundry in Montréal in 2006, and the Museu Casa de la Paraula in Spain in 2015. The Université de Montréal and Concordia University house large public works by Vilallonga. All of the documentation on Vilallonga’s long and prolific career – exhibition catalogs, brochures, press reviews, magazine articles, publications, and over 3,000 photographs of his work – are available for consultation at the Arxiu in Santa Coloma de Farners.*

Selected Exhibitions:
2020 Vilallonga, The Inner Eye, Espai Volart, Barcelona, Spain
2015 Painting Retrospective/Recent Drawings – Museu Centre Cultural Casa de la Paraula, Santa Coloma de Farners, Spain
2009 Galeria Article, Barcelona, Spain
2009 Sala Joan Vinyoli, Santa Coloma de Farners
2007 Galerie Gala, Montréal, Canada
2006 Parisian Laundry, Montréal, Canada
2005 Installation Ceremony: Imaginary Portrait of 24 Universal Geniuses of Today, Concordia University, Montréal, Canada
2005 Galeria Uranga, Bilbao, Spain
2004 Galerie Gala, Montréal, Canada
2003 Galeria Uranga, Bilbao, Spain
2003 Galeria Article 26, Barcelona, Spain
2002 Photokina, Cologne, Germany
2002 Galerie Gala, Montréal, Canada
2002 Galeria Expoart, Girona, Spain
2001 Galerie Madeleine Lacerte, Québec, Canada
2000 Retrospective Exhibition: Poetic Symbolism from Barcelona, Civic Arts Plaza, Thousand Oaks, California
2000 Galeria Article 26, Barcelona, Spain
1999 Galeria Article 26, Barcelona
1999 Galerie d’Art du Mont-Sainte-Anne, Beaupré, Canada
1999 Galerie Sous Le Passe-Partout, Montréal, Canada
1998 Galerie Gala, Trois-Rivières, Canada
1998 Château Laurier, Ottawa
1997 Galeria d’Art Farners, Santa Coloma de Farners, Spain
1996 Galerie de Bellefeuille, Montréal, Canada
1996 Galeria Ferlandina, Barcelona
1996 Galeria Expoart, Girona, Spain
1995 Galerie d’art Jean-Claude Bergeron, Ottawa
1995 Galerie d’art Vincent, Château Laurier, Ottawa
1995 Fundació Vilallonga, Sant Marti Sapresa, Spain
1995 Galerie d’Art du Mont-Sainte-Anne, Beaupré, Canada
1995 Galerie Gala, Trois-Rivières

Museum and Public Collections:
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Canada
Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montréal
Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris, France
Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid, Spain
Université de Montréal
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona
Fundació Vila Casas, Barcelona
Syracuse University Art Collection, New York
University of Toronto Art Center, Toronto
Bibliothèque Nationale du Canada, Ottawa
Fundació La Caixa, Col.lecció Testimoni, Barcelona
Musée de l’Université de Sherbrooke, Québec
Château Saint Fargeau, Yonne, France
Richards Gallery, Northeastern University, Boston
Art Gallery of Hamilton, Canada
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Canada
Edmonton Art Gallery, Canada
Palau Fontana d’Or, Girona, Spain
Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Canada
Museu de Cadaqués, Spain
Concordia University, Montréal
Bronfman Collection, Montréal

Publications:
Vilallonga, The Inner Eye, Espai Volart, Barcelona, 2020
Jesús de Vilallonga, Drawings, Symbols and Signs, Museu Casa de la Paraula, Santa Coloma de Farners, 2015
Vull Inventar Jesús Vilallonga, Ajuntament de Santa Coloma de Farners, 2015
Cent anys de pintura a Cadaqués, Tharrats, Joan Josep, Parsifal Edicions, Barcelona, 2007
Vilallonga, Parisian Laundry, Montréal, Québec, 2006
Livre d’ Heures, Vilallonga, Jesús de, Editions Leméac, Montréal, 2005
Le regard des mots, Vigneault, Gilles et Vilallonga, J.C. de, Ed. Broquet, Montréal, Québec, 2005
Salvador Dalí en el seu entorn de Cadaqués, Keeler, Tony, Ed. Ajuntament de Cadaqués, Catalunya, 2004
Vilallonga: Poetic Symbolism from Barcelona, Thousand Oaks, California, 2000
Vilallonga: Les lieux du rêve / Cloister of Dreams, De Moura Sobral, Luís Editions Broquet (bilingual edition), Montréal, 1993
J.C. Vilallonga: Poet of Inner Vision, Spicer, Malcolm Editorial Juventud, Barcelona, 1978
Surréalisme Català, Galeria Dau al Set, Barcelona, 1976
Vilallonga, Descharnes, Robert Editorial Juventud (French and English editions), Barcelona, 1971

Films:
Documentary, series Carte Blanche-Portraits culturels, Vilallonga artiste peintre, Radio-Quebec Television, 56 min., 1995
Jesús Carles de Vilallonga – Fondre l’art”, Radio-Quebec Television, 28 min., 1997

Credits:
Luis de Moura Sobral, Daniel Giralt Miracle, Vilallonga, Cloister of Dreams, 1993, pg. 19-36, preface.