The overflowing personality of Joan Ponç impregnated the spirit of the Dau al Set [the seventh face of the dice] group, founded in Barcelona in 1948 by the artists Modest Cuixart, Antoni Tàpies and Joan-Josep Tharrats, the poet Joan Brossa, and the philosopher Arnau Puig, and had the regular collaboration of poet and critic Juan Eduardo Cirlot and painter Josep Guinovart. Along with the magical, which is the essence of Ponç’s universe, the group was characterized by their corrosive humor and their desire to rebel against the establishment.

The work of Joan Ponç is based predominantly on meticulous drawings. Paisaje onirico con personajes [Figures in a Dream Landscape] displays a linear precision and a profusion of symbols that is reminiscent of the drawings Antoni Tàpies made in the late 1940s. In contrast to the aggression of Tàpies’ works, Ponç used sarcasm to demystify and eliminate the boundaries between what is seen and what is dreamt; between what is natural and what is civilized or human.