Joan Josep Tharrats

JOAN JOSEP THARRATS (Girona, 1918 – Barcelona, 2001).
Untitled.
Mixed media and collage on paper.
Signed in the lower left corner.
With an authenticity label on the back.
Measurements: 24 x 19 cm.

In this small format, Tharrats brings together some of the most characteristic elements of his informalist style: gesture, chance, materiality, and fragmentation. The neutral surface of the paper is disrupted by broad, calligraphic black marks, splatters, and fuchsia strokes, to which are added overlapping fragments of paper that introduce texture and a physical disruption of the plane.

The use of attached materials ties directly into Tharrats’s constant technical experimentation. Since his years with Dau al Set, he has developed collages and his famous “maculaturas”—a unique process based on superimpositions, accidental stains, gluing, and manual intervention. The combination of chance, graphic elements, and material in this piece clearly reflects that conception of the work as a surface open to the unexpected.

Joan Josep Tharrats was a key figure in the postwar Catalan avant-garde. A co-founder of Dau al Set in 1948 alongside Joan Brossa, Modest Cuixart, Joan Ponç, Arnau Puig, and Antoni Tàpies, he also played a decisive role in the publication of the magazine, much of which was printed in his own studio. He participated in the 1959 São Paulo Biennial and the 1960 and 1964 Venice Biennials; he received the Creu de Sant Jordi in 1983 and the National Prize for Visual Arts in 1993. His work is included in collections such as those of MoMA, the Guggenheim Museum, the Tate, the Reina Sofía Museum, and MACBA.