From March 25 to May 17, 2026

Opening: March 24 at 7:30 p.m.

To talk about Xavier Serra de Rivera (Sant Joan Despí, 1946) is to talk about a painter with capital letters. Not only for his proven excellence throughout his artistic work of more than sixty years, but also for the erudition that lies behind the works he has produced and that is evident when talking about art with him.

For Serra de Rivera, a portrait is not just the material representation of a moment of the model (whether a family member, friend, acquaintance or professional), there is a soul, which through brushes or pastels, he leaves frozen on canvas or paper. Speaking of this capturing of the moment, for him it must be an organic act that flows without obstacles to end up capturing the essence of the portrait. In the words of the painter, “if you start making adjustments to a painting to capture the essence, you are actually stopping painting and therefore it is better to leave it and start from scratch”.

Que és un artista amb el tarannà molt interioritzat i no permeable a modes o requeriments del mercat, es veu clarament en aquesta exposició. Serra de Rivera, continua fent el que més li agrada, sent aquesta la raó que la seva creació defugi de materialitzar-se en d’obres que necessiten explicacions per mostrar un sentit o ser enteses. En el seu cas, ja parlen per si mateixes i provoquen al receptor d’aquestes composicions i colors l’agradable sensació d’entendre i gaudir el que està veient. Una figuració que va més enllà de la mimesi de la realitat, perquè conté el sentiment que l’artista ha percebut en crear l’obra.

This exhibition, surrounded by Can Negre, one of the magnificent modernist architectures that Josep Maria Jujol i Gibert created in Sant Joan Despí, allows us to take a tour of his artistic career. However, as if we were personifying his character with the hat who walks through the Parisian park in the work Dans l’allée de la Duchesse , we do so surrounded by his works.

En la seva etapa onírica ens trobem ocells de mides impossibles que ens observen o donen conversa en diàlegs fantàstics. Gravats que oscil·len de situacions quimèriques a escenaris més realistes. I el seu període més llarg on vistes de Barcelona, retrats i un parell d’autoretrats (pocs, si tenim en compte la gran quantitat que n’ha fet al llarg dels anys), ens endinsen en el seu món creatiu. Entre els retrats, ja siguin de familiars, amics o models, ens trobem sovint amb mirades que busquen la nostra complicitat per iniciar un diàleg, que en alguns casos pot intimidar, ja que la força que tenen les ninetes, és colpidora.

Connoisseurs of the work may miss his well-known still lifes of pomegranates, apples, flowers or cups, although we do find compositions that could be placed in the same drawer. If we except an apple, a pile of rice and a garlic, the rest are inorganic objects that shy away from the typical still life compositions, as we conceive them. Among these object works, we find a fallen angel that, however, seems to be a replica of the angel that Jujol placed on the ceiling of the stairs of Can Negre. As if they were opposites, we find an angel in the ascension imagined by the architect and a fallen angel represented by the painter. Good and evil in eternal struggle.

An artist’s studio, which in this exhibition we can perceive in a biased way in different works, is always a magical place for those of us who are lucky enough to be invited to such an intimate space but at the same time so willing to receive you. It is where the inert materials that are pigments and supports, become, thanks to the imagination and trace of the painter, an expression that goes far beyond a material combination. It ends up freezing a fleeting moment, in a perennial presence.

I hope that this tour of Xavier Serra de Rivera’s work in Sant Joan Despí, a town now a city, where he was born almost eighty years ago, inspires you as much as it inspired us to devise it for you to contemplate.

Jaume González Cuadrat
Curatorship