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Maria Lluïsa Borràs i González (Barcelona, 1 February 1931 – Palafrugell, 23 January 2010), doctorate in Art History from the Universitat de Barcelona, was a Spanish writer, critic, exhibition curator and specialist in the avant-garde and Dadaism.[1][2][3][4]
She initially received a bachelor's degree in Humanities and Semantics from the Universitat de Barcelona.[1][5] Several years later, in 1963, a Ford Foundation Award to participate in the Young Artist Project of the International Institute of Education in New York allowed her to reside in the United States and study contemporary art at the New School, as well as become familiar with North American contemporary art.[1][2] She received her doctorate in art history in 1973 with a dissertation on Francis Picabia.[2][4][5][6]
From 1964 on she was in charge of the administration of Club Cobalto 49,[4] and was soon collaborating with its founder, Joan Prats,[7] -stimulating avant-garde art's promoter in Catalonia- in the third stage of visual books Fotoscop (1966-1979),[8] as author of seven volumes of the collection. She made in two occasions also the photos: for the volumes "Domènech i Montaner, arquitecto del modernismo", and "Sert, arquitectura mediterrània".[4][5]
Between 1969 and 1973, she acted as secretary to Joan Miró.[1] Together with Joan Prats i Francesc Vicenç, she was the driving force behind the creation of the Fundació Miró,[1][4][6][7][8] for which she was the general director from 1971-1975 and on the board of trustees, as well as the executive board, as she would later be at the Fundacó Joan Brossa,[4][6] both positions of which were designated by the express desire of the artists based on her friendship and commitment.[2][5][7][8][9]
She taught at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona from 1969 to 1974,[1][8] where she collaborated in the creation of the first art department, giving classes in contemporary art history, and art theory. She thinks up as well a new course: analysis and criticism of art work.[2][4][5] She was also a teacher at Eina[4][6] school of design.
She directed the art history section at Salvat[1][8] publishing house, compiling encyclopedias and art histories in collaboration with Francesc Vicenç, Vicente Maestre and Eduard Carbonell between 1967 and 1973.[5]
In 1985 she published and extensive monography on Picabia, fruit of ten years' research,[8][9] based upon her dissertation, which was translated and published in four languages and received the Premi de la Crítica,[4] so becoming a reference book on the artist.[1][3][8]
Dedicated to the study and promotion of contemporary art, she wrote texts and essays for several foreign, as well as Catalan, publications such as Canigó and Destino from 1968 to 1973,[2][7] where she stood up for all types of contemporary artistic manifestations, giving special attention to all the happenings celebrated throughout the world. She collaborated in the art page of La Vanguardia for 30 years, from 1977 to 2002, and from 1969 on was correspondent to French magazines like Art Vivant, Opus International and Canal, amongst others.[1][2] She directed the art magazine El Guía in 1987 and, during the last years of her life, moved to Palafrugell where she created the cultural magazine Vèlit from 2004 to 2007, also collaborating with the Diari de Girona and the Gironese magazine Bonart, fostering new trends, especially video creations and installations.[3][4][5]
During the 1980s she founded the production company Proviart in order to promote Catalan artists. Working as screenwriter, director and producer, she made the documentary films Antoni Tàpies (1981), Pau Gargallo (1981), and Picasso nostre (1982). She baptised this collection Fotoscop Sonors in memory of and as homage to her mentor Joan Prats. At the present time these documentaries are conserved at the Filmoteca Nacional de Catalunya.[10][11] The Fundació Tàpies is also in possession of a copy of the film on this artist.[12]
As curator, she organised some 90 exhibitions around the world[2] of artists such as Aristide Maillol, Pau Gargallo, Xavier Corberó, Matisse, Magritte, Joan Miró, Picasso, Wolf Vostell, Joan Ponç, Arranz Bravo, August Puig, Marcel Martí, Viladecans, Frederic Amat, Roberto Matta, Man Ray, Beverly Pepper, De Sucre, Tàpies, Jean Arp, Dennis Oppenheim, Llimós, Cuixart, Olga Sacharoff, Joan Brossa, Enric C. Ricart, Warhol,[2][4][5][13] Benet Rossell, Joan Rabascall, Xifra, Dorothée Selz, or Antoni Miralda,[8] whom Borràs would present at the Venice Biennial in 1990 when she curated the Spanish pavilion.[9] In addition, she was interested in the contemporary art movements of Maghreb and Cuba, as well as current Caribbean art tendencies, to whose artists she dedicated several exhibitions.[2]
Maria Lluïsa Borràs left a bibliography of more than 30 publications on the subject of art,[2][8] including her work on the architect Antoni Gaudí (1972) and the opus dedicated to Coleccionistas de arte en Cataluña (1986-1987),[6][14] as well as diverse monographs on Chillida (1974), Moisès Villèlia (1974), Carles Delclaux (1991), Porta Missé (1995), Wifredo Lam (1996), Ramon Pichot (1997), Andrés Nagel (2003), Floreal (2003), Dalí (2004) and Josep Niebla (2009). Not to mention studies on the work of Alexander Calder and Duchamp, which was especially attractive to her, as was the work of poet and boxer Arthur Cravan to whom she devoted the monograph Cravan, une stratégie du scandale (1996).[5][6][8][9][13]
In 2004 she moved to Palafrugell, her father's village, where she lived and worked during the last five years of her life. She died there 23 January 2010 due to cardio-respiratory failure.[9]
A small part of her library - a section of over 20,000 volumes - was managed by the Gresol association[3][8] thanks to funding from the Elsa Peretti Foundation. Finally, in summer 2019, the archive was transferred, always with the support of the Peretti Foundation, to the library of the University of Girona to become part of its Special Funds, which bring together private collections and libraries of relevant people 18
The remainder of Borràs' private library and documentation was conserved by her daughter, Adelaida Frías, until January 2015 when she made a donation of them to MACBA.[15] This private archive is made up of more than 60.000 documents of diverse categories including manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, audio visuals, etc., in addition to 1.500 books and magazines from her personal library.[16]
Borràs sustained that the purpose of the critic was to share with the reader their knowledge as well as to give them keys to help their understanding of the work of art:[9]
"The critic is not a judge, but a bridge between artist and audience". –Maria Lluïsa Borràs–
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