1980. Drawing class at Casa Dolcet, Eina's first headquarters.
In 2023 Francesc Artigau is named FRIEND OF EINA and is presented with the sculpture created by Sergi Aguilar. The Board of Trustees of the Foundation awarded him the prize for his loyalty over the years. For his great pedagogical work teaching drawing classes and painting workshops and for his enthusiastic involvement in many academic and festive activities such as those related to cooking and gastronomy. We are also grateful for his generosity in donating works of art to the Foundation's Art Fund.
1980. Drawing room. Pencil on paper (57x76 cm).
In 2023 the donation was enlarged with 398 sketches on cardboard. Artigau drew the model and also his pupils while he was giving classes.
DRAWING CLASSES. DRAWING AS GRAMMAR
Francesc Artigau taught drawing at Eina from 1976 to 2010. He also taught painting workshops and art seminars.
Albert Ràfols Casamada said: Artigau manages to break the widespread complex of not knowing how to draw.
1998. Drawing classroom. Casein on cardboard (118x88,5 cm).
In many of his life drawing classes he used a model. About twenty minutes of gesture and then changes every five minutes.
1980. Drawing room. Watercolour (57x76 cm).
In his classes he almost always drew with pencils, but sometimes, in order to provoke the spontaneity of the pupils, he made them draw with a pen.
1980. Drawing room. Pencil on paper (57x76 cm).
Erasers were forbidden. Artigau always boasted that he never bought any.
Xano Armenter was one of his most brilliant students. In one of his classes he portrayed Artigau.
Armenter has donated many of the drawings he made in class to the Eina Archive.
1976. Dedicatory Eina 10 years.
In many sessions Artigau had the pupils draw each other. He himself also drew the pupils while he was giving the class.
ALEXANDRE CIRICI AND THE DRAWING CLASSES
Alexandre Cirici Pellicer was a founding member of the school in 1967. We owe the name Eina to him.
Albert Ràfols Casamada and Francesc Artigau listening to Alexandre Cirici.
For many years Cirici gave the master class at the opening of the academic year. Analysing and relating world events and Eina's academic life in a reflective and polemical spirit.
1979. Inauguration of the academic year with the lecture by Alexandre Cirici "Disseny i llibertat".
Alexandre Cirici was not very much in favour of the teaching of drawing from life because of his position against the academic studies of the schools of Fine Arts and their official degrees. Eina's degrees were not official, but they had a great deal of social recognition.
Photography by Guillem Bonet.
1974. LAS BELLAS ARTES
In December 1974, this performance was organised by the students of the communication class, parodying the atmosphere of a classical academy of the 19th century.
Manuscritp de Albert Ràfols dedicated to Francesc Artigau for the celebration of his fifteen years as a teacher at Eina.
"... Artigau with great courage dared to introduce the live model, that is to say, he was lively enough to see that the live model would build a background of tension that would reveal and maintain the interest of the class, and so it was.
At Eina, drawing with a live model has returned and all the classes of students over the years have been calmer in the world because they have been able to overcome the taboo of drawing. They had understood that drawing was not something inaccessible and that, nevertheless, it was good to know how to express oneself minimally with a pencil and paper. Thanks to Artigau we have lost the complex of not knowing how to draw!
Finally, as art studies gained momentum, drawing took centre stage, normalising classes with a model".
2023. TEACHING IS LEARNING...
In the spring of 2023, as part of the exhibition to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Albert Ràfols Casamada and Maria Girona, in its pedagogical aspect at Eina and the beginning of art studies, Artigau gives a class on drawing from life with a model.
Documentary of the exhibition 'Teaching is learning' with statements by Franscesc Artigau.
ARTIGAU: A BON VIVANT AND A BETTER COOK
Throughout its history, Eina has been interested in cooking and gastronomy, for what it means in terms of the creation of rituals, sensitivity, imagination and for its value as a social and cultural act.
1978. TASTE IN THE KITCHEN
Professors Miquel Espinet, Joan Enric Lahosa, Xavier Olivé and Llorenç Torrado teach this seminar by cooking in front of the audience. They do not teach how to cook, but to consider cooking as a cultural fact.
1981. TASTE AND STYLE: EXCHANGE OF SENSATIONS
It consists of six menus, in which an attempt is made to relate the aesthetics of an artist with a chef and his restaurant. Ràfols Casamada with the restaurant Neichel, Sergi Aguilar with Rincón de Binu, Francesc Todó with Agudo de Aviñón, Maria Girona with Suntory and Xavier Olivé with MG.
The artists illustrate by hand a menu for each diner.
Francesc Artigau is the only artist who not only draws his menu, but also cooks traditional Catalan dishes.
The banquet is cooked and served in his studio at Sant Pere Més Baix street in Barcelona.
1995. TASTE AND STYLE: THE ARTISTS' KITCHEN
On the occasion of the closing of the II Catalan Cooking Congress, a tasting menu is served at the Hofmann Restaurant illustrated by: F. Artigau, A. Ràfols, M. Gerona, F. Todó, X. Olivé and with the special collaboration of J. Guinovart, who also designs the recauda cakes.
More details of this area in the Chronicle EINA and the gastronomic fact: a chronology of activities 1978-2018.
In the Library you can consult these two books illustrated by Francesc Artigau:
1979. LA CUINA DE L'ÀVIA, Recipes by Empar Sabata. Edited by Llorenç Torrado.
1986. ART I CUINA, DIBUIXOS I RECEPTES. Vol. III. Josep Vilella Llirinos.
All the published works have been donated by the artist to the Eina Foundation's Art Fund and are on display at its headquarters in the Palau de Sentmenat.
Text: Xavier Olivé, Guillem Celada and Silvia Brenes.
Image: Javier Garriga.