Juan Puig Manera was born in Olot (Girona) on the 18th of October 1921. He became an orphan at an early age, and on completing his studies in Figueres he went to Barcelona to get a degree in Law and Fine Arts. In 1956, one year after his graduation from the university, he went to Paris where he got into the most advanced artistic circles soon after and one month later he already had a gallery intended for the exhibition of his works, which was the reason why he decided to settle down in the capital of France.
A member of the group of permanent paintors of the art galleries Craven & Denise René, Manera took regularly part in the Salons of Paris (Comparaisons, Réalités Nouvelles, Salon de Mai), which took place every year in the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. In the Craven Gallery he exhibited next to such artists as Dubuffet, Max Ernst, Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Joan Miró, as well as many other world-famous personalities. Moreover, in The Paris Gallery in London his works were placed next to those of Victor Vasarely, Lucio Fontana, Auguste Herbin and Pierre Soulages, as well as some paintings of the Spanish kinetic artist Eusebio Sempere.
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In 1966 Manera got the first prize in the competition of paintings organized by the Spanish Embassador in Paris. He was selected twice – in 1961 and 1967 – to represent the School of Paris in the Carnegie International, in Pittsburg, which was considered as the artistic Triennial of the United States, and his works got an access to the international level.
For family reasons he left Paris in 1971 and came back to Spain, more precisely to Pontós, near Figueres, where he took up his residence and working place. In the same year the City Council of Girona awarded him with the Golden Medal, the first prize in painting. In the seveties he exhibited his works in various places of the province of Girona (Girona capital, Figueres, L’Escala, Pals), as well as in Barcelona, where he achieved much success with critics and sellings in the retrospective exhibition dedicated to him by the Galería Dau al Set in 1974. |
