Joan Josep Tharrats

JOAN JOSEP THARRATS (Girona, 1918 – Barcelona, 2001).
“Capricorn,” 1988.
Color lithograph and silkscreen print on paper, edition 203/299.
Signed and numbered in pencil.
Reproduced in *Tharrats. Obra Gràfica 1957–1990*, Parsifal Edicions, Barcelona, 1990, p. 111.
Measurements: 59 x 60 cm.

“Capricorn” belongs to Tharrats’s mature body of graphic work and to the series of compositions in which the artist incorporates zodiacal imagery into his unique vocabulary of signs and forms. The figure of Capricorn, outlined in red, occupies the upper part of the composition, while the large black-and-red zodiac symbol visually structures the lower space.

The combination of lithography and screen printing allows for the superimposition of densely textured backgrounds, dot patterns, and highly defined flat forms. The hallmarks of the bluish and pinkish tones of the background and the forcefulness of the black and red create an image with a strong graphic impact, in which the figurative motif is fully integrated into the symbolic and experimental language characteristic of the artist. The work is reproduced in the volume dedicated to his graphic production from 1957 to 1990.

A key figure in the postwar Catalan artistic renewal, Joan Josep Tharrats was one of the founders of Dau al Set. Printmaking occupied a prominent place in his body of work and was one of the fields in which he most freely developed his technical explorations and symbolic imagery. His work is represented in various museums and collections around the world, including MoMA and the Guggenheim in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, MACBA, and the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid.