Xavier Valls

Xavier Valls was born on 18 September 1923 in Barcelona, Spain.[1][2] His father, Magí Valls, served on the editorial board of El Matí, a Catholic Catalan newspaper.[1]

He learned the visual arts from the Swiss sculptor Charles Collet and the Spanish painter Jaume Busquets in the 1930s.[2][3]

Valls started his career as a designer for Ramon Sunyer, a jeweller.[2] He then worked for architects Lluís Bonet Garí, Isidre Puig Boada and Francesc Folguera i Grassi as well as designer Santiago Marco.[2]

In 1946, he was a co-founder of the Cercle Maillol at the French Institute of Barcelona with Charles Collet, Suzanne Alemany, Alfred Figueras and Bernard Sanjuan.[1][2]

He moved to Paris in 1949 thanks to a scholarship from the French Institute of Barcelona, and decided to stay.[1][2] By 1953, his paintings were exhibited at the Salon d'Automne.[2] Meanwhile, he worked with Fernand Léger on stained glass designs.[2] His work was exhibited in the art galleries of art dealers Henriette Gomès and Claude Bernard.[1]

He was the recipient of the Prix Drouant in 1980.[2] A year later, in 1981, the Musée Ingres in Montauban organised an exhibition solely about his work.[1] Three years later, in 1984, the Museo de Arte Moderno in Madrid added his 1974 painting, Pêches et pichet to their collection.[2] He became an Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1989.[2]

In 2003 he published his memoirs under the title La meva capsa de Pandora ("My Pandora's box").[1]

He married Luisangela Galfetti in 1958.[4] Four years later, in 1962, they had two children: a son, Manuel Valls, who has served as the Prime Minister of France since 2014,[4] Although they lived in Paris, they summered in Barcelona every year.[1]

He died of colon cancer in Barcelona in 2006.[1] He was only diagnosed one month before his death.[1] He was eighty-two years old.[1]

Three of his paintings were auctioned by Christie's in London in 2009.[5]