Mateo Vilagrasa

MATEO VILAGRASA (San Rafael del Maestrazgo, 1944-Lérida, 2018).
Untitled.
Set of 3 lithographs, P.A. copy.
Signed and justified by hand.
Measurements: 27 x 34 cm; 28.5 x 35 cm (frame).
The philosopher Rafael Argullol writes, praising Mateo Vilagrasa: "we are hardly accustomed to the confluence of painting and knowledge, or, to be more exact, to the symbiosis between the painter and the thinker". In the early sixties, Vilagrasa left Spain for the first time and traveled to Paris and Germany. There he came into contact with the German expressionists Pechstein, Nolde, Beckmann and the abstract expressionism of Pollock. The following year he enrolled at the Sant Jordi School of Fine Arts in Barcelona. Two years later he abandons his studies and Spain, a decision determined by the Franco regime. Via Paris, he travels again to Germany. Frankfurt becomes his city of residence, from where he explores Europe. Stays in Sweden, Holland and Finland, a year in Italy and Greece. 1971 Vilagrasa returns to Frankfurt where he stays for a few years. He studies engraving, lithography and photography,2 is a member of the BBK (Professional Association of Visual Artists) and co-founder of the Frankfurt Art Collective. Together with the German-Israeli painter Max Weinberg he shares a studio on loan from the BBK in the Karmeliter Kloster and engages in intensive research into materials, resins, mineral pigments, methacrylate, fiberglass and others. During the period in Frankfurt, he creates a prolific body of work, attracting the attention of collectors and gallery owners. In 1976 Vilagrasa returns to Spain, lives in Nerja and Ibiza and spends six months in Marrakech. He settles in Vinaroz and in 1978 he moves to Barcelona in a large studio in front of the sea, an old factory in the Poble Nou district, where he develops new forms, his painting takes a turn that can be described as urban. He makes frequent trips to Frankfurt, Munich, Marrakech and Essaouira. He is represented in museums all over the world: MACBA (Barcelona); Museum für Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Nicaragua, among others.