Josep Grau Garriga

JOSEP GRAU GARRIGA (San Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, 1929 - Angers, France, 2011).
Untitled.1986
Mixed media on paper.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 27 x 34 cm; 40 x 47 cm (frame).
Painter, sculptor, engraver and tapestry weaver, Grau Garriga was trained in the schools of Arts and Crafts and Fine Arts in Barcelona, characterizing his early works by a post-cubist aesthetic. After the death of his father, in 1957, he traveled to Paris where he met Jean Lurçat, master of modern tapestry. In the French capital he also came into contact with informalism and matter painting. In the French capital he also studied the techniques and languages of Gothic tapestry and the new French tapestry. On his return to Sant Cugat del Vallès, in 1958, he planned the Escola Catalana del Tapís, in the house Alfombras y Tapices Aymat, of which he was artistic director. In 1964 he presents the first individual exhibition of tapestry in Catalonia, in the Gaspar room in Barcelona. In his work at this time the great influence of informalism can be appreciated, and already in the sixties he began his paper-collages, integrating metallic threads and using the visible warp in his tapestries. In his pictorial work, Grau Garriga works a lot with collage and assemblage, and his interest in tapestry makes the fabric have a special importance in his painting. This artist takes us into the informalist surrealism, with very particular visions in his treatment. In his mature stage, the retrospective that the Palau Robert in Barcelona dedicated to him in 1988 stands out, as well as the homage that his hometown paid him in 2004 with the declaration of the "Grau Garriga Year", which materialized in a double exhibition, one of recent work and the other dedicated to his origins in art. His work is currently distributed in major collections and museums around the world, such as the Museum of Abstract Art in Cuenca, the MACBA in Barcelona and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.