Albert Ràfols-Casamada was born in Barcelona in 1923, and was introduced to drawing and painting through his father, Albert Ràfols i Cullerés, a noucentist painter. It was him who supported him when he decided to abandon his architecture studies to focus on creation through the plastic arts. He held his first exhibition in 1946 with the group El Vuit, four years later he left for Paris thanks to a grant from the French government, where he lived and worked until 1954.

His pictorial journey is related to post-expressionism and figuration in its beginnings, although it evolves through time towards abstraction. During this period prevails color and the influence of American Abstract Expressionism in his chromatic research. Even so, he also developed an important career as a writer of poetry and essays, publishing several books, as well as a set designer and illustrator. On the other hand, his pedagogical aspect in art and design stands out, which began as a teacher at the Elisava school in 1962. But the Bauhaus pedagogical model captivated him, leading him to found, in 1967, the EINA school together with others intellectuals, teachers and artists.

He won different prices along his career, such as the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas (1980),  Creu de Sant Jordi (1983), Légion d’honneur (1991) or Premi Nacional d’Arts Visuals (2003). In 2001 MACBA organized him a retrospective under the title  Albert Ràfols-Casamada, 1953-2001, just as Proa editorial published his complete poethical work under the title Signe d’aire: obra poètica (1939-1999) in 2000.