Girona
Girona (officially and in Catalan language, Catalan , Spanish: ''Gerona'' ) is a city in northern Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter River, Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 103,369 in ...
– 2001 in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
) was a
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
painter, art theorist and publisher.
Born into an industrialist family, his father was the businessman and poet Josep Tharrats i Vilà. From 1932 to 1935 he lived in
Béziers
Béziers (; oc, Besièrs) is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Hérault Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Every August Béziers hos ...
, before relocating to
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
brought his studies to an end, and he wouldn't resume his art career until 1942. His initial style was akin to
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...
but moved into
abstraction
Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or "concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods.
"An abstr ...
as the influence of
Piet Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, also , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being ...
and
Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...
became more important to him. From 1946 on he used collage techniques. In 1947 he was introduced to artists Arnau Puig Grau,
Joan Ponç
Juan Ponç (November 28, 1927 – April 4, 1984) was a Catalan artist and member of the avant-garde group Dau al Set.
Life and work
Joan Ponç was born in the Sarrià neighborhood of Barcelona, Spain to Gumersindo Pons and Dolors Bonet. He at ...
,
Modest Cuixart
Modest Cuixart i Tàpies (born 2 November 1925 in Barcelona – died 31 October 2007 in Palamós) was a Catalan painter. He is, along with poet Joan Brossa and painters Joan Ponç, his cousin Antoni Tàpies and Joan-Josep Tharrats, the founder o ...
,
Antoni Tàpies
Antoni Tàpies i Puig, 1st Marquess of Tápies (; 13 December 1923 – 6 February 2012) was a Catalan People, Catalan painter, sculptor and art theorist, who became one of the most famous European artists of his generation.
Life
The son of Jo ...
,
Joan Brossa
Joan Brossa (; 19 January 1919 – 30 December 1998) was a Catalan poet, playwright, graphic designer and visual artist. He wrote only in the Catalan language.
He was one of the founders of both the group and the publication known as Dau-al-Set ...
and
Josep Vicenç Foix
Josep Vicenç Foix i Mas (; 28 January 1893 in Barcelona – 29 January 1987) was a Catalan poet, writer, and essayist in Catalan. He usually signed his work by using the abbreviation J.V. Foix.
Biography
Born in Sarrià, Barcelona, Foix was th ...
at the
Institut Français
The Institut Français (French capitalization, Institut français; "French institute") is a French public industrial and commercial organization (EPIC). Started in 1907 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for promoting French, francophone as ...
in Barcelona. With some of these artists he founded the group ''
Dau al Set Dau al Set (), the first post-World War II artistic movement in Catalonia, was founded in Barcelona in September 1948 by poet Joan Brossa. The movement, best known for translating the conscious and unconscious mind into art, was heavily influenced ...
'', which published the magazine of the same name, printed in his atelier.
He was one of the most visible artists in the local avantgarde art of the post-war years. His style evolved from lineal abstraction influenced by
surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
(during his ''Dau al Set'' years) towards
Art Informel
Informalism or Art Informel is a pictorial movement from the 1943–1950s, that includes all the abstract and gestural tendencies that developed in France and the rest of Europe during the World War II, similar to American abstract expressioni ...
working with texture, color and graphism. His work also includes a variety of posters, books, murals, stained glass, mosaics, jewelry and opera scenography. També va fer cartells, il·lustrà llibres i va fer murals, vitralls, mosaics, joies i fins i tot escenografies d'òpera (Spleen de 1984).
He had an individual exhibition in 1949 at the El Jardín gallery in Barcelona and became one of the most important Catalan artists in the international scene. From 1954 onwards he became a fixture of the Sala Gaspar in Barcelona and from 1955 in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
and
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. In 1959 his work was exhibited at the 5th
São Paulo Biennale
SAO or Sao may refer to:
Places
* Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD
* Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso
* Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U.S. ...
and at the
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
of 1960 and 1964. In 1966 he founded the Associació d'Artistes Actuals.
In 2000, Tharrats himself collaborated with monumental and small oil paintings in his last exhibition which was organized by Galeria Taüll of Barcelona.
In 2009, an important traveling exhibition called "Les maculatures de Tharrats" was arranged by the Cultural Department of the
Diputació de Barcelona
Barcelona (, ) is a province of eastern Spain, in the center of the autonomous community of Catalonia. The province is bordered by the provinces of Tarragona, Lleida, and Girona, and by the Mediterranean Sea. Its area is .irona núm. 114 (abril 2009), p.25. ISSN 1885-4389.
Bibliography
*''Antoni Tàpies o el Dau Modern de Versalles'' (1950)
*''Artistas españoles en el ballet'' (1950)
*''Cent anys de pintura a Cadaqués'' (1981)
*''Picasso i els artistes catalans en el ballet'' (1982)
*''Dames de tots colors'' (1992)
*''Joan Josep Tharrats i la seva època'' (1999)