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Modest Cuixart and Palafrugell: a vital and creative bond
The municipality claims the legacy of the co-founder of Dau al Set with a program of cultural and educational activities that reinforces the bond between the artist and the town where he lived his most prolific period with the Centernari Modest Cuixart.
Modest Cuixart, one of the leading figures of 20th-century Catalan art and co-founder of the Dau al Set group, forged a deep bond with Palafrugell from 1971 onwards. Despite being born in Barcelona, he chose the town as his living space and creative centre during the last decades, making it the setting for a particularly intense and prolific period. During this period, his work acquired a remarkable expressive force, marked by a figuration rich in lyricism, baroqueism and symbolism.
Modest Cuixart, Golden Bulb, 1991.
The municipality recognized this connection in 2006, granting him the title of adopted son. Cuixart's esteem for Palafrugell was so great that, when he died on October 31, 2007, his ashes were deposited there. Today, his presence lives on through the Cuixart Foundation —created in 1998 and located in the house where he lived and worked—, which preserves his workshop, archive and an essential part of his artistic legacy. The municipality also dedicated a square and an imposing sculpture to him that perpetuate his memory.
The influence of the landscape and light of the Costa Brava was decisive in his production of those years, which extends beyond painting and embraces disciplines such as ceramics, engraving and lithography. This period in Palafrugell is considered a stage of creative plenitude, of overflowing energy, which has left a deep mark both on his career and on the cultural heritage of the town.
In this context, the Plenary of the City Council has agreed to declare the period between November 2025 and November 2026 as the Year of the Cuixart Centenary in Palafrugell. A commemoration that aims to pay tribute to the painter on the centenary of his birth and, at the same time, to deploy a program of cultural, educational and institutional activities in collaboration with the Cuixart Foundation. The objective: to strengthen the bond between the artist and the municipality, and consolidate Palafrugell as a reference for Catalan contemporary art.
Modest Cuixart, Wagner, 1983.
"This agreement allows us to publicly recognize the importance of Modest Cuixart in the cultural life of the municipality. We are talking about an artist of international stature who chose Palafrugell as a place to live and create, and this anniversary is an opportunity to vindicate his legacy and bring it closer to everyone", highlights Mayor Laura Millán.
Preparations for the Centenary have already begun. Among the outstanding initiatives is the cycle of four conferences that the Bofill Chair is dedicating to the artist on November 13 and 27 and December 11 and 18, at the Josep Irla Auditorium in Girona, with speakers such as Marc Cuixart, Raquel Medina, Genoveva Tusell and Juan Manuel Bonet. Also outstanding is the exhibition dedicated to the painter at the Carmen Thyssen Andorra Museum, open until January 30, which anticipates the growing interest in vindicating and projecting the figure of this essential creator of the Catalan avant-garde.
