1925-1928: Rafel Tona and his friend, the Catalan painter Alfred Figueras, move to Algiers from where they travel all over Maghreb. In 1927, they establish in Algiers an academy named Arts where painting, sculpture and drawing are taught. It becomes rapidly an important training and exchange place for all the Algerian artists.

1928-1932: Back to Paris, Rafel Tona splits his time between his own painting, designing fabrics and working on the movie sets in Joinville-le-Pont studios. He helps create the sets for Pagnol and Korda’s Marius (1931) and Pabst’s L’Opéra de quat’sous (French version 1931).

1932-1939: After the death of his mother in 1932, Rafel Tona returns to Barcelona where he opens an advertising agency. In 1936 at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, he joins the PSUC (Catalan Unified Socialist Party) and the SDP (Drawers union). He is also actively contributing to the Catalonian Republican movement by drawing many propaganda posters and political comics in the satirical newspaper La Esquella de Torratxa.

1939-1940: As a refugee from the Spanish Civil War, Rafel Tona returns first to France and then to Algeria when the Nazi troops invade France.

1940-1944: In Algiers, Rafel Tona is dedicated to the Resistance. He participates in the organisation of the Allied landings in 1942. Encouraged by Gaston Palewsky (de Gaulle’s chief of staff), he creates in 1943 with the painter Louis Bernasconi, the Salons de la Résistance in North Africa to raise money for the movement. He contributes to the newspaper Combat (Algiers edition) and the Allied propaganda (with posters and flyers). At the request of René Capitant (National Education Commissioner), he sets up the itinerant exhibition Kollaboration (1944). At this time, Rafel Tona also establishes strong friendships with Jean Amrouche, Jean Brune, Albert Camus, Max-Pol Fouchet, and René-Jean Clot. During all this time, he also continues to paint and to exhibit in North Africa.

1946-1947: His exhibition in the Champion-Cordier gallery in Paris in 1946 is sponsored by Albert Marquet who also hosts him in his studio in La Frette-sur-Seine.

1948-1960: Back in Algiers, his work is featured in various exhibitions and art shows. He continues working as an illustrator for the Journal d’Alger and other Algerian magazines. In 1956, he returns to Spain after 17 years of political exile. He travels to Portugal, France and Holland, new sources of inspiration. He receives in Algiers the Prix de la Critique in 1950 and the Prix du Salon de La France d’Outre-Mer in 1952. During this time, the Art Museum of Algiers buys several of his paintings.

1960-1987: In 1960, Rafel Tona returns definitely to Paris where he continues to make a living from his painting and sculpture. He organizes many exhibitions of his work both in France and abroad. In search of new themes, he visits Spain, Italy, Greece, but New Caledonia will be in 1970 his new land of inspiration. Several of his paintings are acquired by the Art Museum of Toulouse in 1965 and the National Fund for Contemporary Art in 1980. He dies in Paris on 12^th February, 1987.