Dadaists Assemblage
One of Puigmarti’s less known facets is the one being sculptor of artworks - or THINGS, as he likes to call them - created with objects that common people reject for considering them as useless.
Back to Spain in 1989, He starts a new artistic stage. He alternates painting with sculpture in a peculiar way: the raw material that he uses, is collected from the streets, scrap yards, piled up in his studio as useless objects. But in his hands, cardboard, paper, cans, aerosols, tins, tires, old furniture, wood or devices become alive pieces that transmit his strength and his way of seeing the world.
"Every painter or sculptor has to look for the stuff that fits him", says Puigmarti "I need to accumulate material on my studio because when I work I have no preconceived ideas, the work emerges spontaneously and then, I use everything I have at hand".
It is in the 90’s, when Puigmarti fully develops this three-dimensional creations. His “things” belong to the Dadaist tradition, in which objects are constructed from other objects, changing its meaning. Josep Puigmarti has become a collector of abandoned and obsolete items.
Puigmarti has always liked the 3rd dimension. Now, He builds this objects, his things, from found elements – this is common in many contemporary artists -. But what makes him different is the fact that he uses them in the same condition as he finds them, just without manipulation. Also, in turn, He keeps the traditional sense of the three dimensional object understood itself as an already finished sculpture. Only the paint introduces some variation to the already constructed object.
Puigmarti does not collect broken or fragmented objects, but he seeks complete objects, incorporating them to his constructions, giving them a new meaning. One “thing” is configured using numerous objects. His creations show characters created from other objects that have been taken out of context, to acquire new reading which is given by their creator
Monumental Sculpture
As a result of his research in the Dadaist fields, Puigmarti has come to create monumental works that in some cases stand in public spaces while others remain in private collections.
Such is the case of "Quatre", a sculpture made of tubular structures with more than nine feet high. It stands in front of the City Council of the Pyrenean town of Bourg-Madame, in the Place de Catalogne, next to the Centre d'Art Contemporain Puigmarti.
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Also in the border town of La Guingueta d'Ix (Bourg-Madame), Puigmartí has created what has been called “the Artists Square”, where a series of richly decorated dummies (mannequins) can be admired, mounted on a structure as an installation.
Another example is the sculpture "Aliens discover Miniblack". This five meters high structure is exhibited in the hall of a major multinational winery dedicated to cava.
Alien Fashion - 3D
The result of his constant evolution as inexhaustible researcher, Puigmarti presents in 2009, a new sculptural series inspired by his important pictorial series Alien Fashion, those beings who oscillate between reality and imagination. The artist surprises us with these colorful figures using a new technique to bring them into the third dimension.
Josep, through his own experience and feelings alludes, metaphorically, to peace, awareness, integration, employment, culture and tolerance in an increasingly globalized world in need of a unifying element provided herein as a love for nature and our home, planet Earth.
For this reason, his "Aliens" have been titled: "Air", "Nature", "Earth", "Life", etc.
In this series of unreal characters, Puigmartí has decided to create two lines:
- Multiple sculptures with a total edition of 99 units. Some have been finished with a silver coating, while others are presented in bronze coating, patinated in different colours.
- Unique pieces: Puigmartí has used the same mould, but the characters have been hand-painted. The results are unique pieces with surprisingly intense colour .