Emilio Grau Sala

EMILIO GRAU SALA (Barcelona, 1911 – Paris, 1975).
"Interieur," 1971.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner. Signed, dated, and titled on the reverse.
Measurements: 60 x 73 cm; 84 x 96 (frame).
Grau Sala trained at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, combining this formal education with an essentially self-taught approach. In 1930, he held his first exhibition at the Badriñas Gallery in Barcelona. When the Civil War broke out, he moved to Paris, and that same year, 1936, he won the first Carnegie Prize. During the twenty-five years he spent in the French capital, he became closely acquainted with the avant-garde movements, though he always favored a colorful figurative style derived from Impressionism and Fauvism. In fact, he soon became known in Paris as a successor to the spirit and values of Impressionism, directly linked to Bonnard and Vuillard. The success of his style led Grau Sala to also devote himself to graphic art and set design. The grace and refinement of his figures, the vibrancy of his colors, and the elegant atmosphere of the settings he depicted earned him great success and recognition around the world. He held several solo exhibitions, primarily in Barcelona and Paris, but also in cities such as New York, Toulouse, London, and Los Angeles. In 1963, he returned to Barcelona, just as the stagnant figurative art of Franco-era Spain was beginning to be challenged by Oteiza, Chillida, Tàpies, and the “El Paso” collective. However, he remained true to his style, and until his death in 1975 he continued to work in his own personal vein, focusing on his favorite subjects—female figures, interiors, and landscapes—set in a vaguely classical, 19th-century-inspired atmosphere. After his death, and for more than a decade, Grau Sala was overshadowed by the many new artistic trends emerging in democratic Spain, but beginning in the 1990s, the new boom in mid-level collecting brought Grau Sala back into the spotlight, as he came to be seen as a Spanish interpreter of Impressionism. Works by Emilio Grau Sala are preserved at the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Esteban Vicente Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Óscar Domínguez Institute of Contemporary Art and Culture.