Jordi Bonet

Jordi Bonet

Jordi Bonet, painter, muralist, sculptor (b at Barcelona, Spain 7 May 1932; d at Montréal 25 Dec 1979). Bonet met violence early in life as his native city suffered greatly during the Spanish Civil War. At age 7, he fell from a tree, breaking his right arm which, owing to gangrene, had to be amputated at the shoulder. Art then became his refuge, as his father introduced him to Goya, Gaudi, Picasso and Dali. By 20, he had his own studio and held showings with older Catalan painters.

Bonet decided to visit Québec, stayed in Trois-Rivières and settled in Montréal in December 1954. Already painting and drawing with virtuosity, he began working in ceramics, dreaming of murals as well. He produced about 100 of them during the 1960s, in ceramics or cement, in aluminum or stained glass, from Halifax to Vancouver, and especially in the US, from New York to San Francisco and from Chicago to Dallas. In 1969 he bought a manor house in Saint-Hilaire, which he began restoring while still finishing the monumental triptych for the Grand Théâtre de Québec.

In 1973 illness ended his career as a muralist; he returned to drawing and especially aluminum sculpture. He dreamed of more spiritual and sacred art, and then was gone at 47, leaving behind him a large body of truly great works.