A walk through the life of Sala Rovira

BarcelonaIn Barcelona, some art galleries have family roots. The gallerists Silvia Sennacheribbo and Segimon Rovira i Cambra, who ran Sala Rovira, are cousins. Both continued family businesses, and now Sennacheribbo is hosting the exhibition 70 Years of Sala Rovira (1942-2012) at her gallery (carrer Enric Granados, 106, local 1), based on the archive of this gallery known for its dedication to drawing and illustration. The exhibition, which is open until April 19, includes about 80 works from the three periods of Sala Rovira by artists including Grau Sala, Lola Anglada, Ricard Opisso, Lloveras, Xavier Gosé, Rosa Serra, Torné Esquius, Carles Cardellà, Junceda, Cesc, Tatiana, and Picarol. Among the works are surprises such as a watercolor by Joan Llaverias dedicated to Joan Llimona and a drawing by Francesc Gimeno with a tribute text by the poet Josep Maria López-Picó: "Alone with your effort: poor history left us no room for flattery. Alone with death: you have left glory because it does not befit, to your honor, rags".

Sala Rovira was founded by Segimon Rovira i Bori in 1942. However, his career had begun in 1928 with a printing and stationery workshop. It was later when he remodeled the premises and converted the warehouse into a small exhibition space of 45 m², which was accessed after passing through the stationery shop, while the printing press continued in the basement, connected to the ground floor by a renovated staircase. Before the Civil War, Rovira was also known for the bookstalls he set up on the Rambla de Catalunya with fantastic decorations by the painter Ricard Arenys. "After the Civil War, they told him to set up an art gallery, because there was no censorship in the images. My grandfather, who died when I was nine years old, was involved in amateur theater and knew [the set designer and art dealer] Baldomer Xifré Morros, who advised him", explains Segimon Rovira.

A tribute to Isidre Nonell

From the first period, the exhibition includes a couple of sketches for calendars that Rovira i Bori commissioned from graphic designer Ignasi Vidal. The first exhibition of the Salón de Arte Rovira was a tribute to Isidre Nonell organized by the artist's family. It had a great impact, but he didn't sell any drawings, which were priced at 250 pesetas. Rovira continued with an exhibition of Ricard Opisso, and at the end of 1943 he dedicated the first exhibition to Cesc (Francesc Vila Rufas) – who was then a teenager – because he knew his father. In fact, Cesc remained associated with the gallery until his death in 2006. "Cesc used to say that the 1943 exhibition was the only one he attended in shorts," says Rovira i Cambra.

The few art galleries that existed in Barcelona were small cultural oases during the harshest years of Francoism. "In the 50s, watercolors were the most sought after. And at one point Antoni Badrinas, who was a draftsman and designer from Terrassa, told him that he should dedicate himself to drawing, because there was a great tradition in Catalonia and nobody was doing it," recalls Segimon Rovira. "In the fifties there were very few art galleries and they opened on Sunday mornings. People would go to buy the tortell, go to mass, and visit the galleries," he explains.

Rovira i Bori died in 1965. He was succeeded at the head of the business by his son Antoni, who had started helping him in 1940. In the second phase of the gallery, Antoni Rovira i Juyol developed two lines, based on recovering draftsmen from the first third of the 20th century and those artists who were exiled or had been forgotten. "My father was an only child, and with these more than twenty years of work he was fully involved in the business – says Rovira –. He greatly promoted the theme of drawing, and one of the people who helped him a lot was Josep Maria Cadena. He tried to put on about twelve exhibitions a year." Among the discoveries of that period are Raymond Renefer, a draftsman whom Rovira i Juyol discovered in Paris, Nicanor Vázquez, and the sculptor Rosa Serra. Another discovery is that of José Robledano, a republican illustrator from Madrid whom Rovira i Juyol discovered in an issue of the magazine Historia y vida, and he exhibited the drawings he had made in prison. "It was a brutal success," says Rovira i Cambra.

The history of Sala Rovira took a traumatic turn with the sudden death of Antoni Rovira at 58 years old in 1960. His son, Segimon Rovira, took over, deciding to close the printing press to focus on the gallery. A distinctive feature of the third phase is that, in addition to continuing with historical illustrators, it opened its doors to current illustrators, including Carme Solé Vendrell, Mercè Llimona, Fina Rifà, and Jesús Gabán, who was the National Prize for Children's and Youth Illustration. And one of its most successful artists is Tatiana, known for her small paintings of Barcelona facades. "They snatched them out of my hands," says Rovira i Cambra.