Martinell is coetanous with the Noucentisme. Hence he coexists and acquires contemporary knowledge from three different cultural currents: monumentalism, strict noucentism and from last Gaudí disciples. 3050
This diverse education, on the one hand mentors related to the modernism and on the other those who were already in the ranks of emerging Noucentisme, was decisive for the development of his personality and influenced him towards a multifaceted character, as were most of his contemporaries. He highlighted that shared attitude of universality, of eccentricity in the meaning of escaping from the poverty of specialization in one only subject.
Martinell represents an intellectual bridge in between the second generation of Catalan Renaissance masters (Antonio Gaudi, Lluis Domenech i Montaner i, Puig i Cadafalch, etc.) and baby boomers.
By the time Martinell was about to graduate from the School of Architecture in Barcelona, he started to work at Joan’s Rubio studio, at the same time he began to take part of the select group of architects which surrounded Gaudí who had just started the retreat at the Sagrada Familia. From the relationship with the architect it grew a special way of understanding and projecting architecture, and one of the research paths that developed the most: The Gaudinism.
The influence of Gaudi’s modernist architecture is especially evident in its agrarian projects. Even though minor dwellings of its work show better the monumental references such as gaudinians, florentines or baroques.
Within Martinell’s architecture there is an excellent process of recovery of some Gaudinism elements with a new sensitivity.
The distinct taste for color and design, the orderly and clear composition, the treatment of representation, framed by a cultivated and sober landscape, those are elements in which Martinell reassumed the materials Gaudi offered during the last years as his mentor.
It is stated that Martinell belongs to the Noucentism because of the uniqueness of his work, where it meets the persistence of a tradition related to Gaudi and the modernism with cultural, ideological and formal presets which are those understood as Noucentistes .
To stablish this, it is meant to be said the intent antimodernist that followed Gaudi and his disciples. For Gaudi and his social circle the architecture operation that had to be carried on was about clearing the modernist "chaos" and its "split versatility" through a new synthesis of architectural monumentality. Constructive rationality and monumental sense had to lead the future of Catalan architecture.
Founded in 1952 Martinell founded the entity Amics de Gaudí, and in 1958, when he was 70 years old, the Centre d’Estudis Gaudinistes, which is dedicated to spread Gaudí and his work through publications, conferences, exhibitions, etc. All that activity culminates with the edition of the book Gaudí, su vida, su teoría, su obra published by the Colegio de Arquitectos de Cataluña y Baleares in 1967.
Thanks to their friendship and his broad knowledge about Gaudí's way of thinking, Cesar Martinell carried on the restoration of some of Gaudi's master works, as per example: La casa Batlló, La casa Milà, la cripta de la colonia Güell o el Palau Güell.
Mr Ramirez Martinell is currently collaborating with the architectural team responsible for the continuation of the works on the Sagrada Familia.
Mr Ramirez Martinell does it in a non profitable base, just for the continuation of a family tradition.
