Dau al Set: The Great Catalan Avant-Garde of the 20th Century
When Art Once Again Challenged Boundaries
In the history of 20th-century Spanish art, few movements have exerted as decisive an influence as Dau al Set. Emerging in Barcelona in 1948, in a society marked by the consequences of the Civil War and the cultural isolation of the early post-war period, the group brought together a generation of young creators determined to revive the spirit of the Catalan avant-garde and open new avenues for contemporary art.
Its importance lies not only in the subsequent relevance of names such as Antoni Tàpies, Modest Cuixart, Joan Ponç, and Joan Josep Tharrats. Dau al Set was also an intellectual phenomenon where painting, poetry, and philosophy coexisted with a common desire to expand the boundaries of creation. Through their works and, especially, the magazine that gave the group its name, its members championed experimentation and dialogue with the international currents that had transformed European art.
Barcelona in the post-war years, the urban and cultural context in which Dau al Set emerged.
The Barcelona of the late 1940s offered a particularly complex context. The Civil War had interrupted much of the Catalan avant-garde tradition developed in previous decades, and the new political scenario had considerably reduced cultural exchanges with Europe. However, certain spaces, especially the Institut Français in Barcelona, facilitated contact with international culture for some young artists.
In this environment, the core of artists and intellectuals who would eventually form Dau al Set began to take shape from 1946 onwards. Its most intense period of activity was concentrated between 1948 and 1951, although the magazine continued to be published until 1956, and its influence extended far beyond the group's actual existence.
The subsequent careers of its members show the breadth of that experience. Tàpies, Cuixart, and Tharrats evolved towards different forms of abstraction and informalism, while Ponç developed a profoundly personal pictorial universe, and Brossa took experimentation towards visual poetry, objects, and performance. Dau al Set was, in this sense, a starting point for some of the most important transformations in Catalan and Spanish art of the second half of the 20th century.
In this journey, we review the group's origin, its protagonists, the importance of its magazine, and the evolution of a collective experience that, despite its short duration, holds a fundamental place in the history of the Spanish avant-garde.
What was Dau al Set?
Dau al Set was a group of artists and intellectuals formed in Barcelona with the intention of broadening the city's restricted art scene and recovering the Catalan avant-garde tradition interrupted in 1939. Their activity was marked by an interest in surrealism, contemporary thought, and the experimental currents of the European avant-garde.
The main core consisted of painters Antoni Tàpies, Modest Cuixart, Joan Ponç, and Joan Josep Tharrats, the poet Joan Brossa, and the philosopher Arnau Puig. This composition explains the unique character of the group: it was not merely an association of painters, but a project in which image, word, and thought coexisted closely.
A broad circle of collaborators and like-minded figures developed around them. Among these, Juan Eduardo Cirlot stood out, whose texts contributed to enriching the magazine's intellectual universe, alongside writers and critics such as Carlos Edmundo de Ory, Rafael Santos Torroella, Alexandre Cirici, and J. V. Foix. Therefore, it is more accurate to distinguish between the central members of the group and the circle of collaborators who participated in its activity.
An Avant-Garde in Post-War Barcelona
The members of Dau al Set shared a desire to break with a limited artistic scene and re-establish contact with European modernity. Surrealism was an essential reference, although the group never developed a single style or a closed aesthetic program.
In their early experiments, automatism, the world of dreams, symbolism, a taste for the magical, and a fascination with that which escaped rational logic appeared. Poetry, existentialism, philosophy, and certain esoteric traditions further expanded the field of references for its members.
Among their main references were Joan Miró and Paul Klee, as well as various figures of international surrealism. However, Dau al Set did not merely reproduce foreign models. Its contribution consisted of transforming these influences within the cultural reality of post-war Barcelona and developing personal languages from them.
The Meaning of “Dau al Set”
The group's name literally refers to a “dice at seven,” an impossible image because a conventional die has six faces. The expression synthesized the desire of these young artists to seek that which lay outside established categories.
The seventh side could be understood as a metaphor for the impossible, the unknown, and that which escapes reason. The name thus summarized an attitude linked to the surrealist spirit and the exploration of other dimensions of reality. Dau al Set expressed a declaration of intent: to imagine what does not exist to expand the boundaries of the possible.
The Magazine That Gave the Group a Voice
The magazine Dau al Set was the collective's main vehicle of expression. Its first issue appeared in Barcelona in September 1948 and was manually produced using Joan Josep Tharrats' small Boston printing press. The publication had a handcrafted character, and many of its texts were written in Catalan.
Covers of Dau al Set magazine, one of the most unique art publications in post-war Spain.
The magazine combined poetry, philosophical texts, criticism, drawings, images, and graphic work. Tharrats played a fundamental role in its production, printing, and distribution, while Brossa and Puig contributed texts, and Tàpies, Cuixart, Ponç, and Tharrats contributed from the visual sphere.
Its circulation ranged from approximately 100 to 200 copies, primarily distributed among subscribers. Despite its limited circulation, the magazine became one of the most unique editorial projects in post-war Catalan culture.
The publication continued until 1956, when Dau al Set's collective activity had already lost intensity. From 1952, Tharrats practically single-handedly ensured the magazine's continuity.
Two Exhibitions That Marked an Era
The group's joint activity was brief, concentrated mainly between 1948 and 1951. The members of Dau al Set exhibited together on two occasions.
The first took place in December 1949 at the Institut Français in Barcelona. Antoni Tàpies, Joan Ponç, and Modest Cuixart participated in it.
The second was held in October 1951 at the Sala Caralt in Barcelona, where the group members participated along with Arnau Puig and Juan Eduardo Cirlot.
In the early 1950s, its members began to develop increasingly independent careers. Tàpies moved to Paris in 1950, Cuixart to Lyon in 1951, and Ponç to Brazil in 1953. Collective activity gradually lost intensity, and the group's dissolution is usually placed around 1953, although there is no single definitively established date.
The magazine, however, continued until 1956. This difference between the group's life and the continuity of its publication is essential for understanding the evolution of Dau al Set.
The Artists of Dau al Set
The true dimension of Dau al Set is understood through the trajectories of its protagonists. Although they shared the same creative space for a few years, each subsequently developed their own language and occupied a different place in the renovation of art, poetry, and thought in Spain during the second half of the 20th century.
Joan Brossa: Poetry as an Act of Freedom
If there was a true intellectual catalyst for Dau al Set, it was Joan Brossa (1919-1998). A poet, playwright, and visual artist, Brossa understood creation as a borderless territory where word and image were part of the same language.
"Object Poem, 1968." Joan Brossa, poet and visual artist, was one of the fundamental intellectual figures of Dau al Set.
Influenced by surrealism, Dadaism, and stage magic, he rejected traditional literary conventions to develop a profoundly experimental body of work. His visual poems, objects, and artistic actions anticipated many of the conceptual practices that decades later would gain significant prominence on the international scene.
Within Dau al Set, Brossa provided a poetic and philosophical dimension that was essential for uniting the group. More than a writer collaborating with painters, he was a total creator whose conception of art profoundly influenced his companions.
Antoni Tàpies: Towards a New Conception of Painting
Although today he is recognized as one of the great figures of 20th-century European art, Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012) began his career within the symbolic and dreamlike universe of Dau al Set.
His early works show fantastic characters, mysterious signs, and references to the subconscious, clearly linked to surrealism. However, he was also the first to abandon that aesthetic to embark on a completely new investigation into matter, texture, and pictorial gesture.
In the early 1950s, he developed the language that would make him an international figure: dense surfaces, sands, marble dust, earth, plaster, and calligraphic signs transformed painting into a physical space laden with memory and meaning.
His evolution also marked the path that other Spanish artists would follow towards informalism, becoming an essential reference in contemporary painting.
Modest Cuixart: Alchemy, Matter, and Mystery
Among the group members, Modest Cuixart (1925-2007) was probably the one who developed one of the most personal visual universes.
Modest Cuixart's evolution from surrealist imagery to increasingly material painting can be seen in the works preserved in the Gaudifond Collection.
His early paintings clearly reflect the influence of surrealism, with fantastic figures and compositions where the symbolic occupies a central place. However, from the mid-1950s, he began a profound transformation that led him towards increasingly material and experimental painting.
Cuixart incorporated sands, metallic pigments, reliefs, and thick textures to construct surfaces of extraordinary visual richness. Aged gold, silver, deep blacks, and almost ritualistic graphics turn many of his works into true objects of contemplation, where painting seems to acquire an archaeological or alchemical dimension.
His work constitutes one of the most refined examples of European informalism and was widely recognized in biennials and international exhibitions.
Joan Ponç: The Imagery of the Invisible
The work of Joan Ponç (1927-1984) occupies a unique place in 20th-century Catalan art.
Joan Ponç's symbolic and fantastic universe is one of the most unique expressions of Dau al Set.
From his first paintings, he developed a deeply personal language, populated by fantastic characters, hybrid creatures, masks, symbols, and unsettling scenarios. His visual universe, halfway between dream and nightmare, has no direct equivalents in the Spanish art scene of the time.
Although he shared references with surrealism, Ponç constructed a completely unique iconography, marked by mystery, spirituality, and an interest in ancient cultures.
During his stay in Brazil, he further expanded his plastic language, incorporating new cultural references without ever abandoning the symbolic intensity that characterized all his production.
Joan Josep Tharrats: Experimentation Without Limits
Joan Josep Tharrats (1918-2001) played a dual role within Dau al Set. In addition to being a painter, he was responsible for printing the group's magazine, becoming a key figure in disseminating their ideas.
Tharrats not only actively participated in the creation of Dau al Set magazine; his pictorial research evolved towards gestural abstraction in which stains, signs, and matter played a leading role.
His artistic trajectory evolved from a figuration rooted in surrealism towards a fully abstract language. From 1954, he began to investigate new pictorial techniques related to Tachisme and gestural abstraction, developing dynamic compositions where stains, splashes, textures, and calligraphic signs acquire extraordinary expressive force.
His permanent technical curiosity led him to experiment with unusual procedures, consolidating a body of work characterized by formal freedom and chromatic intensity.
Arnau Puig: The Group's Philosopher
In contrast to the pictorial prominence of his companions, Arnau Puig (1926-2020) provided the philosophical reflection that helped define the intellectual identity of Dau al Set.
Interested in existentialism, phenomenology, and contemporary thought, he argued that art should become an instrument for understanding the human condition and expanding our perception of reality.
His essays and critical texts helped provide the group with a solid theoretical foundation, situating their investigations within a much broader philosophical context than a purely artistic one.
Decades later, he would remain one of the great historians and popularizers of the Catalan avant-garde.
Juan Eduardo Cirlot: Poetry, Symbols, and Thought
Juan Eduardo Cirlot (1916-1973) was not part of the founding core of Dau al Set, but his relationship with the group was particularly significant. Poet, art critic, and scholar of symbolism, he collaborated with the magazine and helped create the intellectual atmosphere that surrounded the collective.
His interest in mythology, alchemy, music, surrealism, and symbolic systems coincided with many of the concerns of the Dau al Set artists.
Its participation demonstrates the extent to which the magazine served as a meeting point for different currents of Catalan and Spanish avant-garde culture.
The Influence and Legacy of Dau al Set
One of the most important aspects of the legacy of Dau al Set is the transformation experienced by several of its members during the 1950s.
The group had started under a strong influence of surrealism and the Catalan avant-garde tradition prior to the Civil War. However, its artists did not remain tied to that language. The evolution of Tàpies, Cuixart, and Tharrats shows how the initial imaginary progressively gave way to a more abstract, material-gestural, and experimental painting.
In Tàpies' case, the pictorial surface acquired fundamental importance. In Cuixart, matter was combined with symbols and references of a magical and alchemical nature. Tharrats developed research based on color, gesture, stain, and technical experimentation.
This process connected the Catalan avant-garde with the development of Spanish Informalist art, which during the 1950s and 1960s would achieve a notable international presence.
Dau al Set was thus one of the starting points for a much broader transformation of Spanish painting.
International projection
The renewal promoted by Dau al Set coincided with a progressive opening of Spanish art to the outside world.
Contact with Paris and other European centers allowed several of its members to directly experience new artistic currents. Tàpies played a particularly important role in this internationalization, while other group members also developed careers outside Spain.
The Catalan avant-garde thus began to form part of an international artistic context in which surrealism, abstraction, and Informalist art were profoundly transforming painting.
The importance of Dau al Set was therefore manifested less in its activity as a collective than in the subsequent projection of its members and the influence they exerted on later generations.
What remains of Dau al Set today?
More than seven decades after its appearance, Dau al Set continues to be an essential reference for understanding the evolution of contemporary Catalan and Spanish art.
Its legacy is preserved in museums, collections, archives, and libraries. The magazine Dau al Set constitutes today an exceptional document for studying post-war avant-garde culture, while the works of its members allow us to follow the transformation of Spanish painting from surrealism to abstraction and Informalist art.
The magazine also possesses extraordinary documentary value. Its circulation was very limited, and its copies are now testimonies of a time when creating, publishing, and disseminating new artistic ideas involved significant restrictions. MACBA preserves a collection of the publication corresponding to the period 1948-1956.
Dau al Set thus remains an example of how a small group of artists and intellectuals could generate a far-reaching cultural transformation.
Modest Cuixart and Joan Josep Tharrats in the Gaudifond Collection
The presence of Modest Cuixart and Joan Josep Tharrats in the Gaudifond Collection provides direct access to two of the fundamental trajectories linked to Dau al Set and the renewal of post-war Catalan painting.
Cuixart's works preserved in the collection allow us to observe his interest in matter, symbols, and visually rich surfaces. In Tharrats' case, his presence allows us to approach the evolution of an artist who combined intense editorial activity with pictorial research marked by abstraction, gesture, and technical experimentation.
Their presence in the collection thus has a value that transcends the commercial dimension. They are material testimonies of a decisive period in the history of Catalan art and allow us to understand, through the works themselves, the transformation experienced by the Spanish avant-garde during the central decades of the 20th century.
For a collection specializing in modern Spanish and Latin American art, preserving and documenting works related to this period also means contributing to the transmission of an artistic memory that remains fundamental for understanding contemporary art.
Dau al Set was born in a culturally isolated Barcelona and brought together a small group of artists and intellectuals. Its collective existence was brief, but its influence proved extraordinarily lasting. Its members demonstrated that the avant-garde could regain its space even in a context of restrictions and that experimentation could open Spanish art to the world again.
Artists of Dau al Set present in the Gaudifond Collection
