20th Century Spanish

This Catalan painter is regarded as one of the main exponents of in Spain.

While still in his teens, Villà travelled to Colombia with his father, who was in the wine trade. There he began to take an interest in the art world and took painting lessons at the School of Fine Arts in Bogota. Little by little, the artist conflated tradition and avant-garde to forge his own highly personal style of painting.

In the 1920s, he moved to Paris where he remaining until 1930. During his time there, he was fascinated by the work of Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) and Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958) and their unique landscape vernacular. He also became friendly with Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), Pancho Cossío (1894-1970) and the sculptor Pablo Gargallo (1881-1934).

An avid traveller, Villà visited Holland to acquaint himself with the work of great masters like Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) and Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890).

In 1985 he was awarded the San Jorge Cross by the Generalitat de Cataluña regional government.