Emilio Grau Sala

EMILIO GRAU SALA (Barcelona, 1911 - Paris, 1975).
"La reússite". Barcelona, 1964.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower left corner. Signed, dated and titled on the back.
Measurements: 60 x 73 cm.

The title of this painting refers to the good fortune that the tarot reader reads in the cards that she casts to the young woman seated in front of her. The fortune-teller, dressed in black and wearing a lace scarf, appears to us as a beautiful and enigmatic woman. In this work, Grau Sala's singular colorfulness is expressed in all its essence, with his very personal reinterpretation of the fauve palette. He interweaves abstract patterns, contrasted textures, finely traced contours to define the delicate faces? He wisely balances cold and warm tones, prioritizing a luminous, decorative and anti-classical result.

Grau Sala studied at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, an apprenticeship that he combined with an essentially self-taught training. 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. In the twenty-five years that he remained in the French capital, he was closely acquainted with the avant-garde, although he always opted for a colorist figuration, derived from impressionism and fauvism. In fact, he soon became known in Paris as a successor of the Impressionist spirit and values, directly related to Bonnard and Vuillard. The success of his style led Grau Sala to devote himself also to graphic work and scenography. The grace and finesse of his characters, the vivacity of the colors and the elegant atmosphere of the environments that he captured made him reap great success and recognition all over the world. He held several solo exhibitions, mainly in Barcelona and Paris, but also in cities such as New York, Toulouse, London and Los Angeles. In 1963 he returned to Barcelona, when the stagnant figuration of Franco's Spain began to be challenged by Oteiza, Chillida, Tàpies and the collective "El Paso". However, he remained faithful to his style, and until his death in 1975 he worked within his own personal line, centered on his favorite themes, female figures, interiors and landscapes, in a vaguely classical, nostalgic time setting of the nineteenth century. After his death, and for more than a decade, Grau Sala was overshadowed by the multiple novelties that were emerging in democratic Spain, but from the 1990s onwards, the new boom in mid-level collecting relaunched Grau Sala, as he was understood as an interpreter of Impressionism in a Spanish key. Works by Emilio Grau Sala are kept in the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Esteban Vicente Museum of Contemporary Art and the Óscar Domínguez Institute of Contemporary Art and Culture.