Luard Bonet de Ahumada

Stained glass

NAME

ADDRESS:

Calle Astúries, 6 – 08012 Barcelona

Website

DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK

The business J.M.Bonet is dedicated to the restoration and conservation of stained glass windows as well as to the manufacture of new ones. They also work on the manufacture of engraved glass elements. It was founded by J.M.Bonet in 1923 and since then it has been passed on from one generation to the next and from master to master, maintaining the respect for traditional techniques and methods and at the same time also having a continuous interest in the development of new procedures.

Luard Bonet is the heir of a tradition of stained glass artisans from Barcelona. He is not only the third generation of stained glass masters of the workshop, but it is the workshop itself the living memory of a way of working the glass which – especially in Barcelona – created and still creates a heritage of stained glass windows of world-wide recognition.

J.M.Bonet’s workshop, where he himself was trained and where he works, trains his artisans in various artistic procedures with glass. The founder of the workshop, his grandfather, learnt the craft in the well-known workshop of Oriach, which was the result of some having split from the Amigó workshop, which was created by the artisans who worked at the Ravella workshop, a lineage of stained glass window painters from the 18th century. The knowledge of Luard Bonet and that of the rest of artisans within his workshop comes directly from this ancestral transmission of knowledge from master to apprentice.

As an artist, Luard Bonet carries out projects based on the contrast of pure colours and materials. Glass is probably the material which is most capable of offering the most intense and rich colours. Thus, he uses few pieces, colours and materials, which are selected thoroughly, and frequently travels to the glass-blower’s workshop to select the sheets of glass one by one.

As an artisan and custodian of the tradition of this craft, he knows and foresees the challenges of the new projects he has to face, either in the reproduction of intricate Art Nouveau designs or in the job of elaborating stained glass elements for other artists.

Luard has worked with Perico Pastor, Tano Pisano, Marta Blasco, Ricard Chiang, Andrea Ortega, Joan Vila-Grau, and Toni Vila, among others, acting as a counsellor and advisor.

APPRENTICESHIP

Luard learned the craft through his family and completed his training in the Escuela Llotja in Barcelona with a title in “Artes Aplicadas al Muro”. He currently combines his work at the workshop with his studies of Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona.

SELECTED WORKS

Creation of the stained glass windows for the temple, focussed on the Spanish culture, of the Daiwa Saiken business. The initial draft represents a waterfall, where texts are written in Spanish in allusion to the family. Luard Bonet projected the initial draft and worked on all the stages of the construction of the project.

Construction of the stained glass windows for the nave, the clerestory and the staircases of the Sagrada Familia, by the artist Joan Vila Grau. Restoration of the stained glass windows of the crypt which his grandfather carried out in 1930.

Stained glass windows with Tano Pisano and Perico Pastor.

Stained glass windows of the chapel of the Santísimo within the church of San Miguel, in Molins de Rei, by Andrea Ortega.

Restoration of the skylight of the Casa Amatller.

Restoration of the skylight of the Court of Justice, in Barcelona.

Restoration of the stained glass windows of the Casa Batlló.