El Taller i l'Escola. De la República a la Democràcia
The Studio and the School. From the Republic to Democracy. Catalan Regional Government Studio-School of Painting and Sculpture in Tarragona
With the proclamation of the 2nd Republic in 1931, the Catalan Regional Government constructed a major cultural project in the region. The creation of the Studio-School of Painting and Sculpture established a leading centre for the education of plastic arts in Tarragona.
The proposal, led by Ignacio Mallol and Joan Rebull, together with the professors Salvador Martorell, Enric Cristòfol Ricart, Josep M. Capdevila and Rafael Benet, helped train many students, some of whom, such as Josep Busquets, Sadurní Garcia Anguera, M. Teresa Ripoll, Gonzalo Lindín and Enric Pinet, would become renowned artists.
The School had a specific educational system, a logical teaching programme and the implantation of a traditional education: the restoration of the Academy, the representation and production of art and statutory education.
The School was destroyed by the bombings suffered by Tarragona in 1938 during the Spanish Civil War.
A short time after the end of the Civil War, in 1946, the Provincial Council of Tarragona began a project to create a Workshop and School of Art directed at training in the field of applied arts, initially linked to the Technical College of Tarragona.
The sculptor Lluís M. Saumells was the first director of the school, and the sculptor Salvador Martorell and the painters Gonzalo Lindín and Sadurní Garcia Anguera were the first teachers.
In 1951, the school was set up at the Martí House, the building in which we are now and which was the residence of the scientist Antoni Martí i Franquès of Altafulla. The school moved to its current location in 1976 in the area of Sant Pere Sescelades.
Throughout the life of this teaching centre, now the School of Art and Design, a great number of professionals have been part of its teaching body, achieving great professional prestige, for their teaching as well as for their artistic creation.
More information about the Escoles d'Art i Disseny de la Diputació de Tarragona