Last of the Grup Taüll, artist Jaume Muxart dies aged 96

What he feared most about dying was that he would no longer be able to paint. Artist Jaume Muxart’s long creative life came to an end yesterday at the age of 96.

Born in Martorell in 1922, Muxart was of a generation of artists that developed during the years of the Franco regime. In 1948 he got a grant to study in Paris, where he met Picasso and decided to devote his life to art. A grant in 1952 saw him travel to Rome.

When Muxart returned home, he helped set up the Grup Taüll with six other artists (Marc Aleu, Modest Cuixart, Josep Guinovart, Jordi Mercadé, Jaume Muixart, Antoni Tàpies and Joan Josep Tharrats) in 1955. Yet, as an artist, Muxart was something of a free spirit, a value he passed on to his students at the Fine Arts faculty in Barcelona University, where he taught and would later become dean.

Married to the artist Roser Agell, Muxart never stopped exhibiting his work, both here and abroad. In fact, his work was displayed all over the world in exhibitions in cities that included Cairo, Stockholm, London, Sao Paulo and Copenhagen. However, at home he never received the institutional recognition he deserved. Not that he ever complained, and in 2011 the Muxart Museum opened in Martorell to house examples of his work.