Carlos Nadal

Art Brokerage: Carlos Nadal Spanish Artist: b. 1917-1998. He was a renown Fauvist from Spain. Nadal's work at first appears to be naive, almost childlike. However, it is difficult not to admire the extravagant wild colors, bold lines and unique perspective. Carlos Nadal was the last wild expressionist of Spain and perhaps one of the last artists with direct connections to the original group of Fauvist painters. He was born in Paris on 24 April 1917, but moved to Barcelona in 1921.His father, Santiago Nadal (died 1932) had a commercial design studio, where Carlos not only learned to paint, but met modern artists including Henri Matisse, Raoul Dufy and Maurice Utrillo. As well as the informal education from his father's business, he studied at the School of Arts and Crafts and the Senior Fine Art Academy of St George, both in Barcelona. He was conscripted into the Spanish Republican Army and fought in the Spanish Civil War, including imprisonment and escape from a concentration camp, before finally returning to his art studies, and in 1942 having his first solo exhibition. He lived in Montparnasse where he met Picasso, Braque, Utrillo, Dufy. Nadal often visited Braque's studio. In 1949 Nadal was offered a US scholarship by the Carnegie Foundation, but he chose to marry his girlfriend Flore Joris, a sculptor, and they went to Brussels, where Nadal took up a contract work. The artist remains in great demand throughout Europe and the US. Nadal was particularly influenced by Henri Matisse whom he met as a child, and Georges Braque who was a close acquaintance in the 1940s, and maintained a love of the Fauvist style. His first solo exhibition was in 1942 at La Pinacoteca in Barcelona. His early work was mainly of scenes in Spain or Belgium but when established as a successful artist he traveled extensively, making paintings which often featured modes of transport as well as leisure scenes. According to one critic, the world of Nadal's paintings was "a flamboyant place where elements coming from everywhere enflame themselves in one frenzy". Listings wanted.