Joan Josep Tharrats

JOAN JOSEP THARRATS I VIDAL (Girona, 1918–Barcelona, 2001).
Untitled.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 73 x 60 cm; 92 x 79 cm (frame).

This work is fully in keeping with Tharrats’s artistic universe, marked by technical experimentation, an interest in material processes, and an abstraction with intense poetic resonances. The combination of deep blacks, frothy whites, and earthy tones evokes his most characteristic style, in which the painting becomes an active, almost alchemical surface.

Here, Tharrats combines an informalist gestural style with a keen sensitivity to textures and chromatic hallmarks. The right-hand area, defined by a light diagonal plane, opens up the composition and creates a spatial interplay between depth, shadow, and light. The surface is enlivened by effects of smudging, splattering, and pictorial accumulation, while the ochre circle at the top introduces an element of balance and tension, akin to a celestial body or symbol suspended above the pictorial field. The collision between gestural expression and geometry creates a dialogue between order and chance, matter and form.

Joan Josep Tharrats was a painter, art theorist, and a key figure in the postwar Catalan artistic renewal. He was a driving force behind the Dau al Set group and magazine, alongside Joan Brossa, Modest Cuixart, Joan Ponç, and Antoni Tàpies. His work evolved from an abstraction rooted in Surrealism toward Informalism, with a highly personal language based on technical and material experimentation. His work is represented in collections such as the MACBA in Barcelona, the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, the MoMA and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Tate Gallery in London.