Introduction

TEAM

Diana and Francesc working

Francesc Mestre i Bas, Barcelona 1941. President

Before opening his own business in 2001, Francesc Mestre has been in charge of other barcelonian galleries such as AS (1970-1971), Adrià (1971-1976) and René Metras (1976- 1979). During all those years he has worked as art dealer of catalan and spanish artists such as Guinovart, Ràfols Casamada, Erwin Bechtold, Artigau, Serra de Rivera, Marcel Martí. He is co-founder of the Catalan Association of Art Galleries, nowdays known as Gremi de Galeries d’Art de Catalunya.

Diana Jové Borràs, Barcelona 1985. Director

Graduated in Advertising and Public Relations at Universitat de Barcelona, Diana Jové took an Official Master in Cultural Management at the Universidat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC). She is currently a council’s member of  Gremi de Galeries d’Art de Catalunya.

THE GALLERY

Gallery's door

We are an art gallery located in the heart of  L’Eixample in Barcelona since 2001. We have recently celebrated our 10th anniversary and we received the award for best modern art gallery and historical research on the 2012 by the Catalan Association of Art Critics (ACCA)

Our exhibition program brings all the techniques together: painting, sculpture, drawing and etching. But we are specialized in recovering historical artists, from those more renowned to those forgotten artists from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries like:  Subirats, Francesc Domingo ; sculptors like Miguel Berrocal and Manolo Hugué.

Moreover, we are focused in the historical vanguards, with artists who broke early twentieth century as well as those from the forties: Picasso, Miró, Esteban Vicente, Guinovart, Ràfols Casamada, Equip Crònica, Roca Sastre.

We also highlight less publicized techniques such as drawing, etching (especially orthodox techniques), bibliophile (Bosch Roger, Dürer, Jaume Pla), as well as specific topics such as illustration, comics and cartoons (J.L. Pellicer, R. Opisso, J. Coll).

At Francesc Mestre Art Gallery you will find out works of many artists who have raised the art history of our country with their personality. We are specialized in discovering, dignifying and making them accessible for those who are sensitive.

GENERAL SERVICES
- Appraisals: for insurances, testament, etc.
- Comprehensive consultancy: report, dictum, restoration, conservation, framing, certifications
- Payment facilities
- Guarantee

IF YOU ARE A COLLECTOR
- Finding artworks that may be of your interest
- Research and documentation finding

IF YOU ARE A NEW COLLECTOR
Exclusive dedication: Important artworks at affordable prices (in each exhibition we try to offer works from 300 Euros)

The Gallery

HISTORY:FRANCESC MESTRE AND GALLERY’S TRAJECTORY

Francesc Mestre, Erwin Bechtold and René Metrás

In 2011 the gallery celebrated its tenth anniversary with a commemorative exhibition titled “Ten years and some days”  wich collected, at least, one masterpiece from all the artists that had been showed individually in the gallery.

Remarking the anniversary, the influential art historian Francesc Fontbona published an article about Francesc Mestre in the magazine “EL TEMPS”. Entitled “It’s time to talk about Francesc Mestre”, the article describes the trajectory of our art director and the gallery:

Francesc Mestre, Lluis Bassat and others with Salvador Dalí

(…) Francesc Mestre, the art gallery director, has a long trajectory linked to the contemporary art, through art galleries that in the 60s and 70s had a strong importance in the new artistic sensibility in our country, like Adrià’s Gallery or René Metrás’s Gallery. Nevertheless, in that time, his name was just in mind of whose were usually in the artistic space, or even in the Barcelona art galleries. This professional career had made him an expert not only in Catalan art of the twentieth century in the aesthetic appearance, but also its sociological implications, and of course, the circumstances, not always innocent, that govern the imposition and diffusion of taste and names. Mestre treasures some experiences of the events and attitudes that would help to know and interpret the evolution of our art world since the postwar period until now, and that’s why if he ever decide to write his book, that it seems not yet been raised, he would offer a superb document, not an anecdote, but-as would say Eugeni d’Ors- a qualified one.

Francesc Mestre with Joan Miró

Since he opened his own gallery he has oriented and focused in small format, but with chronological and stylistic range much greater, and his task was soon revealed remarkable to enter in the arts world to many who until then not dared to take the step of acquiring pieces because surely were economically unaffordable, or even because they weren’t able to cross the barrier between the status of a mere visitor gallery and the active client. The dimensions of the Francesc Mestre Art’s gallery, the fact of being at street level, and the effort that has made his owner bringing his drawings at reasonable prices- sometimes even in the gallery has organized artistic outlets- has done much to awaken shy amateur visitors to budding collectors.

The imagination of Francesc Mestre has been the promotion of art and history, it’s time to be recognized for the excellence of his tactics contribution, atypical of a dealer, and whom vibe, know and love art passing through his hands (…)

Francesc Fontbona
ffontbon@bnc.cat