About Àngel Jové

Àngel Jové is an artist who demonstrated a freedom of action, unconventional in the world of design, to which he was initiated by Santiago Roqueta. He is considered one of the greatest pioneers of the Conceptual Art movement in Spain, in addition to being a leading protagonist in the world of cinema and television. Jové has led the most versatile career: he has been a professor in various design schools; an awarded interior designer; the author of books such as Verbo Ser (Lumen, 1970) or the Tratado de los órdenes arquitectónicos (Tusquets, 1971); he has acted in various movies, like Bilbao (1978), Caniche (1979) and Angustia (1986) by Bigas Luna, or Pasión Lejana (1986) by Jesús Garay; he has worked as a scriptwriter and artistic director in TVE and TV3; he has also been a graphic designer and illustrator; and much more. However, his greatest interest is painting.

He has shown his work in many exhibitions since 1961 until nowadays in Lleida and Barcelona, but also in Ottawa, Johannesburg and Berlin, among other cities. Ángel Jové’s work has a backdrop of mystery and nostalgia, in fact he experimented with anti-establishment art, Arte Povera, as a reaction to art marketing, as well as with photographic printing on fabric, photomomontage and environments. This outsider got introduced into the world of design thanks to architect and designer Santiago Roqueta, to contribute with his talent in some objects, such as the Babel and the Zeleste lamps, both made of alabaster, a material usually considered to be vulgar, but which in this case creates a great richness of possibilities. Both lamps caused a major aesthetic impression at the time, an effect that has not diminished with the years.