|
|
The
museum studio, can Famades now called can Serra, is an
old house of the distant past, which was built in 1654, and
is in the Baix Llobregat region, where a ceramic tradition existed
for many years due to the quality of clay deposits. The Serras,
who wished to re-establish their family studio, acquired it
in the mid twenties to use it as a studio. The building is a
typical example of a well conserved Catalan farmhouse. The structure
of the house has been conserved intact to the present day, although
the Serras transformed it into a studio. The ovens were installed
in the gardens, the ground floor was used as a studio, the first
floor a living quarters and the third floor, the attic,
as time went by was also occupied to carry out manufacturing
works and for warehousing.
The
exhibition area which is on the ground floor has been dedicated
to explain the contribution made by the three generations.
Each generation has a different exhibition room. The first
generation is situated in the left wing as you enter: Antonio
Serra Fiter. The right aisle is dedicated to the second generation:
Antonio, José and Enrique Serra Abella: the central
part is dedicated to Jordi Serra Moragas and is used for temporary
exhibitions. The first floor of the building can also be visited
and conserves practically intact the original living quarters
of the Serras, together with personal mementoes which pertain
to them and reveal their identity.
|
|
THE
FIRST FLOOR
(THE OLD LIVING QUARTERS OF THE SERRAS)
If
the studios or the houses of the artists are of any interest,
it is because they reveal to us a buried and hidden discourse,
which a simple observation of the work does not let us see,
but which allows us to understand the magnitude of their spirit
and their profound content. What the original environment
of the Serras shows, is their ambition to create ceramic art.
This intimate and personal microclimate converts itself into
a type of X-ray which reveals their wish to transform ceramics
into a form with which the author may express himself.
On
one hand, they themselves are artists and they feel artists.
They are multiple creators who combine painting, ceramics
and other activities. For example, Antoni Serra Fiter began
as a painter. A significant date which demonstrates his ambition
and vocation is his participation, as founder member of the
association "Academia artística libre" (1893) formed
by other artists amongst which are Santiago Rusiñol,
Ramón Casas, Isidre Nonell, etc. Equally his own work
as a painter is testimony of this activity, a work which is
not particularly extensive, but which explains the origin
and the development of the ceramist and his subsequent contribution
to ceramic art. Without this compromise, the contribution
of the Serras would not have been possible.
|
|
Moreover,
his own personal art collection and that of the Serras in general,
which was the result of a personal relationship with the same
creators, demonstrates a close relationship with intellectuals,
architects, sculptors, painters, etc
that explains his point
of reference. This means that the ceramics of the Serras interrelates
itself with the most lively and restless culture of our history,
and that between ceramics and culture there is a revitalisation,
a return trip, in which art in general contributes to ceramics
and visa versa. For example: the origins of the "Coral St. Jordi",
when it was only a project, was born in this same exhibition
hall together with the Martorells in Barcelona as a result of
the warm relationship that the Serras had with the most active
circles in Catalonia.
|
