Joan Josep Tharrats

JOAN JOSEP THARRATS VIDAL (Girona, 1918 – Barcelona, 2001).
“Dau al Set,” 1950.
Watercolor on paper.
Signed in the lower right corner.
With a label on the back from the Fontana d’Or Gallery, Girona.
Measurements: 25 x 17.5 cm.

Tharrats devoted several series to the fluid, submerged universe, perhaps evoking primordial oceans. Tharrats was one of the founding members of the Dau al Set group in 1948, alongside Joan Ponç, Antoni Tàpies, Modest Cuixart, and Joan Brossa. He edited and directed the magazine of the same name until 1956. He studied painting and printmaking in Barcelona. After a post-Impressionist phase, he delved into the world of Surrealism and magical abstraction, until he abandoned it in favor of Informalism—characterized by large patches of color, strong chromaticism, and abundant material—which defines his classic *Maculaturas* series beginning in 1954. Following the dissolution of Dau al Set, he helped found the Tahüll group (1955), a collective of young Catalan painters who moved between abstraction and neo-figurative art. Also interested in graphic design, illustration, the applied arts, and the world of publishing, he participated in countless solo exhibitions (since 1950) and group exhibitions (since 1948) in major cities around the world, and his work is on view in art museums such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, and the Tate Gallery in London, among others.