Dau-al-Set
Description
Dau al Set (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈdaw əl ˈsɛt]), the first post-World War II artistic movement in Spain, was founded in Barcelona in September 1948 by poet Joan Brossa. The movement, best known for translating the conscious and unconscious mind into art, was heavily influenced by both the Surrealist and Dadaist movements. In Catalan Dau al Set means "the seventh face of the dice", which expresses the movement's rupturist character. Read more ↗
Key Artists
Joan Brossa
Catalan poet, playwright, and founding catalyst of Dau al Set who named the group ('Seventh face of the dice') and infused visual poetry with surreal, rupturist magicism.
Antoni Tàpies
Co-founder and leading painter whose early Dau al Set period explored Surrealist dream worlds and occult symbolism before pioneering abstract 'matter' painting.
Modest Cuixart
Co-founding painter whose meticulous, mysterious Dau al Set canvases combined Paul Klee's delicate linear style with dark, esoteric Spanish folklore.
Joan Ponç
Co-founder and visionary painter whose nocturnal, grotesque, and demonic figures embodied the pure, uncompromised magical realism of the Dau al Set aesthetic.
Joan-Josep Tharrats
Co-founding painter, graphic designer, and publisher who operated the private printing press that produced the clandestine Dau al Set magazine between 1948 and 1956.
Arnau Puig
Co-founding art critic and philosopher who provided the theoretical rigor and existential framework for Dau al Set's rebellion against Francoist cultural stagnation.
Famous Artworks
Fun Facts
In Catalan, 'Dau al Set' translates exactly to 'the seventh face of the dice', a title chosen by poet Joan Brossa to symbolize the group's belief in chance, magical impossibility, and rupturist avant-garde defiance.
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org
Because the Catalan language was strictly prohibited in public print by Francisco Franco's regime, Joan-Josep Tharrats had to secretly print issues of Dau al Set on his private press and distribute between 100 and 200 unbound broadsheet copies by hand to trusted subscribers across Barcelona.
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org