“Moisès Villèlia’s objects offer certain possibilities for plastic experiences, be they dynamic, lyrical, pathetic or totally new, aimed at enriching the lives of their onlookers.”
Alexandre Cirici Pellicer (excerpt from the text El fenómeno Villèlia, 1959)
“Moisès Villèlia’s art belongs to one of those phenomena that now and again emerge from the purest depths of the Earth.”
(Excerpt from the text published in Revista [Barcelona], 1960)
“Nothing violent. Everything harmonious, subtle. His hard-to-execute work can be compared to that of spiders or wasps, and once done, it does not even appear to have been touched.”
Maria Dolors Orriols (excerpt from the text “Moisès Villèlia” published in Revista de las Artes, 1960)
“His bamboo canes, taught, loose, cut, crisscrossed or suspended like weightless mobiles, have unprecedented and incomparable grace and subtlety. The points of reference used, Surrealism and Constructivism, do not allow us to judge him as a mere disciple of the likes of Gabo or Pevsner. Villèlia’s role in national and international contemporary sculpture over the past 20 years has been decisive, not only because of the originality of forms, which may have some precedent, but also because of the good choice of material, which he is capable of revealing to us as unknown and magical in its uses.”
Daniel Giralt-Miracle (excerpt from the text “Moisès Villèlia, arquitecto del bambú”, Batik no 4, 1974)
“Villèlia understands matter like a poet does the word: as an instrument that portrays his ‘attitudes’.”
A.P. (excerpt from the text published in Gaceta de Arte no 19)
Now internationally valued, he has surprised locals and foreigners alike by his originality and endless creative powers. There are few artists who are not like anyone else. But Villèlia is one of them.”
Alberto del Castillo (excerpt from the text published in Revista Goya no 119, 1974)
“So, because of the plasticity of the works on the one hand, in which emptiness prevails over fullness, where internal space – owing to its importance – has supplanted external space; and the previously unseen and humble materials on the other, which have taken the place of the polished surface and marble seams, these works make Villèlia one of our most current and respected sculptors.”
Gloria Moure (excerpt from the text “Moisès Villèlia. El diálogo materia/espacio”, Batik no 30, 1977)
“Villèlia has disrupted the concept of sculpture: his pieces do not occupy a place in the space vacated by invasion. This artist not only integrates space into his sculptures, so fragile yet so solid and slender, but we would dare to say that he also creates the air that surrounds them and passes through them.”
Rafael Manzano (excerpt from the text “Villèlia, tallista del aire”, El Noticiero Universal, 1982)
“I think he is an artist, a sculptor, that only the judge of time will put in the prominent place he so deserves in our 20th-century art.”
Jordi Gimferrer (excerpt from the text Moisès Villèlia, un clàssic del segle XX, 1994)
“A silent sculptor who has made his skilful use of materials and elementary construction a form of poetry that goes beyond a certain Oriental decorum.”
José Luis Clemente (excerpt from the text published in El Cultural, 1999)
“Moisès Villèlia knew how to construct lasting yet unclassifiable plastic works, attached to nature and marked by radical creative freedom.”
(Excerpt from the text “Girona muestra el frágil y lúdico arte de bambú de Moisès Villèlia”, El País, 2005)
“And, in general, he was unable or did not want to be skilful in his relations with the powers of the market or art institutions. There is no other way to explain why, today, he is not considered one of the creators of modern sculpture, among the likes of Calder, Julio González and Naum Gabo, who were some of his masters. […] Villèlia invented the language of bamboo cane.”
Juan Bufill (excerpts from the text published in La Vanguardia, 9 October 2005)
“Villèlia’s work can be situated alongside that of Naum Gabo, Julio González and Alexander Calder.”
Juan Bufill (excerpt from the text “Un bosque vaciado”, La Vanguardia, 2014)
“Villèlia is one of the few sculptors who have managed to create their own worlds, based on the expressive matter that he chose as his main one (bamboo cane) and on the specific possibilities that it gave him, which were different from those afforded by other earlier materials such as clay, stone and metal.”
Juan Bufill (excerpt from the text published in La Vanguardia, 14 December 2015)
“… He seduces, excites, moves... The artist has been one of the most creative, unusual and, at times, insufficiently recognised Catalan and, indeed, universal sculptors of the 20th century.”
Joan Alcaraz (excerpt from the text Moisès Villèlia: ingràvid, aeri, portentós…, 2016)
“Lyrical, genuine, imaginative, creative, pioneering, poetic, loyal, musical and freethinking, he invents a world and populates it with ethereal, aerial and marvellous beings; in subtle ways, which structure the spiritualisation of the materials. He is a poet and cartographer of emotions and feelings, which he rouses through bamboo. A seeker of lights among shadows, of days among the dark night of the soul.”
Tomás Paredes (excerpt from the text published in La Vanguardia, 24 April 2016)