Spanish painter (1920–2011)
Josep Collell (July 18, 1920 – July 21, 2011) was a Catalan painter, ceramicist, and educator, who was from Spain and lived in Montevideo, Uruguay. He was a member of the Taller Torres García school of art and in 1955 he created, together with his wife Carmen Cano, the Taller Collell (Collell Workshop) of ceramics where for thirty years they taught their ceramic technique, the burnished engobe. He also went by the name José Collell.
Biography.
Josep Collell was born in 1920, in Vic, Barcelona, Spain. His passion for drawing and painting was shaped in the Escola Municipal de DIbuix of Vic. In 1946 he was a founder member of “Els Vuit” (The Eight), a group of painters who shared a similar artistic concern and a desire to build bridges with the artistic strength previous to the Spanish Civil War.
He died on July 21, 2011, and Carmen on December 11 of that same year.
The Taller Collell and its burnished engobe.
On entering the Taller Torres García, he discovered Universalismo Constructivo (Universal Constructivism). It was the name given by Joaquín Torres García to the artistic language he wanted to create for Latin America in order to unite the primitive vision of Pre-Columbian Art and the geometrical abstraction of the European avant-gardes. An aesthetic approach to project to applied arts as well, from ceramics to architecture, and a way to stimulate experimentation with different techniques and materials.
In this atmosphere, Josep Collell first encountered ceramics. From the mid-1940s artists in the Taller painted commercial vessels with the oil painting technique, but when Jorge Piria provided them with a kiln, they could already fired glazed pieces. Julio Alpuy, Horacio Torres, Manuel Pailós, Antonio Pezzino, José Gurvich, and Julio Otero, among others, applied the constructive language to ceramics.
Collell started his first ceramic experiments with Antonio Pezzino, Carlos Martinez, Rodolfo Visca and Gonzalo Fonseca. They wanted to build their own ceramic forms and, inspired by the technique and forms of Pre-Columbian ceramics, they investigated the preparation of clay, its firing, and also made their first burnished engobes. 
Josep persisted in these preliminary essays in order to find a technique, the burnished engobe, that could allow him to paint, grease and burnish the pieces before firing so that clay became another painterly support.
From the creation of the Taller Collell in 1955 to its closure in 1985, Josep and Carmen taught with great generosity and dedication the technique of the TC and they also projected a ceramic vision that left its artistic and human mark on the many students attending the Taller.
Presently, Casa Collell, the home and Taller Collell, exhibits Josep's work and other artists of La Escuela del Sur. It is also the studio of the ceramicist Josefina Pezzino, who teaches, among others, the technique of the TC.
Its legacy is also present in the ceramics of Lidya Buzio, and Carme Collell who have spread it through United States and Europe.
References.
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