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| Josep Mestres Cabanes (Manresa, 13 June 1898 – Barcelona, 17 September 1990) was a Catalan painter and stage designer and Professor of Perspective at the Sant Jordi Higher College of Fine Arts in Barcelona and the Theatre Institute. He began his studies at the Manresa College of Arts and Trades. In terms of painting, Mestres Cabanes’ work is very extensive and multi-faceted: oils, watercolours, murals, graphic design, altarpieces, dioramas, parade floats, ornamentation, stage design sketches, texts on stage design, etc. He worked as a stage designer in the studio at the Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona Opera House) (1941-1975), where he became the last great classical stage designer. Mestres Cabanes was born into a humble family from Manresa associated with the decorative arts. He began to show drawing ability at a very young age. He began studies in art, which he later continued in Barcelona, entering the studio of the great stage designer and decorator Salvador Alarma, where his brother Francesc was already working. He also designed floats for parades and decorated ballrooms and stands for trade fairs. In the twenties, Alarma was commissioned to decorate the ceiling of the Cervantes Theatre in Buenos Aires, opened in 1921, and Mestres Cabanes went oversee the installation. In 1929 the Alarma studio made a series of dioramas for the Barcelona and Seville exhibitions, a speciality in which they always worked and had no rival. Mestres Cabanes painted many theatre sets – for plays, comedies, light opera, revue, etc. – and the first stage design he created himself was a commission from the Tívoli Theatre. In 1939 he went into partnership with Alarma, creating the firm Alarma i Mestres. When Alarma died, out of respect for him Mestres Cabanes went into partnership with his son, Antoni Alarma, setting up the Mestres-Alarma business, but this lasted less than a year. Mestres left the Circ Barcelonès studio and moved to the Liceu, where he knew they were waiting for him. The Liceu offered him its studio, which had been occupied by the outstanding Maurici Vilomara, with the freedom also to be able to use it for private commissions. In 1945, when part of the rest room collapsed, he restored Josep Mirabent’s murals. It was during this period when he began his stage design project for Aida and when he made one of his greatest discoveries in the field of perspective, the master angle, as well as beginning to work on his paintings through various exhibitions. However, the first two stage designs he would open at the Gran Teatre del Liceu were Lohengrin and Parsifal. Then came Siegfried, Aida, The Mastersingers of Nuremburg, Tristan and Isolda, and, finally, Canigó. After these successes he became professor at the Sant Jordi College of Fine Arts and was awarded the Silver Medal of Theatrical Merit. In 1977, the Mestres Cabanes room was opened at Manresa County Museum and he was given the National Theatre Award in the stage design section. He also created stage designs for works by Joan Brossa at the Romea Theatre. A year before his death in 1989, Manresa City Council awarded him the City’s Gold Medal and, ten years after his death, the Josep Mestres Cabanes Foundation was opened as a stable base and exhibition and documentation centre for his work. |
Josep Mestres Cabanes, in 1966. |
