Escola de la Llotja


The Escola de la Llotja, officially the Escola d'Arts i Oficis de Barcelona, is an art and design school located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The school took its name from its initial location in the Llotja de Mar palace; it was moved in 1967 to its current location at 17 Ciutat de Balaguer Street. The first director of the school was Valencian engraver Pedro Pascual Moles, who oriented the school towards academic art advocated by painter Anton Raphael Mengs.

History

The school was founded by the Junta de Comerç de Barcelona in 1775 under the name Escola gratuïta de disseny as a training center for applied art. The school was first oriented around the printing of silk and cotton textiles, and later broadened its scope to include the plastic arts. The period between 1768 and 1787 was a great boom of textile-printing factories, and Barcelona led Europe in textile-printing activity. In 1817, the school added architectural studies to its program of studies.
The school's classes were totally free. Furthermore, scholarships allowed many students to travel to Madrid and other European centers like Rome and Paris for studies, where they typically dedicated themselves to copying grand masters' works, which was a common method of study in that era. The school's focus evolved toward the fine arts and in 1778 its name was changed to Fine Arts School. In 1790, the school expanded with satellite locations in Olot, Palma de Mallorca, Tàrrega, Girona, Saragossa, and Haca. The school organized its first exhibition in 1786 of prize-winning student work; in the next year's exhibition, other non-student artworks were also displayed.
In 1850, the school became dependent on the Acadèmia Provincial de Belles Arts, with the new name Provincial School of Fine Art.
Mexican painter Sylvia Ordóñez studied printmaking at the Escola de la Llotja in 1979. Pepita Pardell, Spanish animator, cartoonist, illustrator, and painter, was also a student.