C0007

Ceramic frieze at the Celler Cooperatiu del Pinell de Brai

Ref Num.: C0007

Date: 1920-1921

Typology: Ceramics

Technique: Painted ceramics

Dimensions: 80 x 4550 cm; 180 x180 cm; 204 x 60 cm

Signed: –

Terra Alta, Pinell de Brai

From 1920 to 1921 Xavier Nogués worked on the decorations for the façade of the cooperative winery and olive press, the Celler i Cooperativa Agrícola de Pinell de Brai (Terra Alta, Tarragona), consisting of different ceramic panels and friezes on wine-related themes and about olive oil production. The building had been planned and designed by the architect Cèsar Martinell and became known as the “cathedral of wine”. On the panel above the door on the main façade that leads into the oil press, we see oil depicted as a source of food and energy for people. On the side where the winery is located, we see scenes from the grape harvest with drunken men, the typical celebrations around a fountain and a group of hunters.

This frieze was so large that the artist produced detailed drawings on squared paper indicating where the different ceramic tiles should be placed. Unfortunately, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War meant that project had to be postponed until 1949, eight years after Nogués’ death. Most of the tiles were placed where the artist had intended them to be, with the exception of the one depicting women with olive branches, which, for reasons unknown, is not in the place indicated in his drawing.

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Rafael Benet, Xavier Nogués. Caricaturista y pintor, Ediciones Omega, Barcelona, 1949, cat. Porcelana, cerámica, p. 93 and p. 14. J. Barbeta, A. Casanovas, M. Gil and C. Vidal, Exhibition Xavier Nogués, Barcelona 1873-1941, Palacio de la Virreina, March-April 1967, Ayuntamiento de Barcelona, Museos de Arte, Barcelona, 1967, cat. no. 548, p. 59 and cat. no. 1269, p. 97. Cèsar Martinell, Destino, no. 1272, 23rd December 1961. Cecília Vidal Maynou (dir.), Xavier Nogués (1873-1941), Alfa Books, Fundació Xavier Nogués, Barcelona, 2021, pp. 193-197.