Xavier Carbonell

After his wife, the sculptor Rosa Serra, presented his work The Olympic Suite at the Laussane Olympic Museum, Xavier Carbonell met the museum director who asked him to donate a painting. The painting caused such an impact that Juan Antonio Samaranch did not think twice and commissioned another one, the subject of which was peace, to be donated to Unesco.

After two years of gestation, today the figure of several African children surrounded by pigeons and the perennial sun of their continent «which represents the inconvenience of it and at the same time its source of life», will hang on the walls of an organism whose spirit is the Xavier Carbonell's Daily Practice: Education, Science and Culture.

Xavier Carbonell's academic teaching began with his childhood adventures through his father's workshop and academy "I was immersed in a world full of language and artistic making." At 15, his job projections were twofold: "Work in a bank or in my father's artisan workshop." It didn't take long to make up his mind and chose the latter.

Thus began his improvement in drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics and engraving and to participate in all kinds of competitions. He exhibits for the first time at the age of 22 and obtains the prize of the II Olot Painting Contest for a work framed in the urban landscape of his land, which will later culminate with Tribute to Gaudí, made in 1977.

His interest in "living in situ" artistic tasks leads him to travel to Paris to wander through places and landscapes "sometimes topical, but real," says Xavier, of the bohemian atmosphere that later "transforms into inspiration." This experience will bring with it a new trend, that of intimacy, which will later be reflected in paintings dedicated to women, children and the popular environment: El molino, La paloma and Café de Perpignan.

"I also began to worry about the world of entertainment, after drawing a few vedettes from La Scala." This is how he was inspired to carry out an unprecedented work: the iconographic representation of the most famous operas such as La Boheme, Aida and Othello.

Not even his intimate life escapes from the artistic framework: he has coexisted at times »for 18 years with the sculptor Rosa Serra. "So we are always looking forward to seeing each other," they both point out.