Oscar Tusquets
1941
Architect by training, designer by adaptation, painter by vocation and writer to make friends, Oscar Tusquets Blanca is the prototype of a complete artist that the specialisation of the modern world has gradually brought to extinction.
Born in Barcelona in 1941, he graduated as an architect at the Barcelona School of Architecture, while at the same time attending the Llotja Barcelona Arts and Crafts School.
He worked for three years at the studio run by Federico Correa and Alfonso Milá together...
Architect by training, designer by adaptation, painter by vocation and writer to make friends, Oscar Tusquets Blanca is the prototype of a complete artist that the specialisation of the modern world has gradually brought to extinction.
Born in Barcelona in 1941, he graduated as an architect at the Barcelona School of Architecture, while at the same time attending the Llotja Barcelona Arts and Crafts School.
He worked for three years at the studio run by Federico Correa and Alfonso Milá together with Lluís Clotet. This was where he became familiar with the preindustrial design of furniture and objects. It was also at this studio where he designed the Clotus fireplace, which is still in production.
A member of the now defunct Studio PER, he first undertook architectural projects, including the Casa Fullà, Belvedere Georgina and the Pantelleria house, all three with Lluís Clotet. Other significant works of his include the extension and refurbishment of the Palau de la Música Catalana, the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Toledo metro station in Naples. In 1975, he planned, together with his teacher and friend Salvador Dalí, the Mae West Room at the Theatre-Museum in Figueres. In accordance with the Dalí’s explicit request, he was named a Life Patron of the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation.
With BD Barcelona Design, a company of which he was a founding member (1972), he started out as an industrial designer of furniture and objects. This was the origin of, among others, the Catalano Bench and the Hypostila Shelving System, both with Clotet. Working on his own, he designed the Varius and Gaulino chairs. He has worked for the Italian firms Alessi, Bissazza, Cleto Munari, Driade, La Murrina, Leucos, Tonon, Treccani, Trend and Zanotta; the German firms Forwerk, Quartett and Ritzenhoff; and the Spanish firms BD, Amat, Casas, Cha Chá, DAE, Expormim, Figueras, Kettal, Mobles 114, Nani Marquina and, now, Santa & Cole. Some of his pieces form part of the collections of major museums, like MoMA in New York, the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris or the Vitra Design Museum in Basel.
Among other distinctions, he has received the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts, the Spanish National Design Award, which he won the second year it was held, and the Palme de Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He also has two Barcelona City awards, and several FADawards in Architecture and Delta awards in Design.
