-GRAU AND JULIAN GARRIGA GRACQ
"I wanted to meet" , confesses he in his interview in June 2009. The estimated
door Grau-Garriga Angevin is the writer, with the evocation of the Vendée Uprising, one of the starting points and originality of this exhibition. This explains the few works made "in honor Gracq, which cartels can surprise the visitor.
The two men, it is true, viscerally hate anything that might resemble some way to indoctrination or allegiance to any. A priori, one sees still more easily contrasts and even contradictions that separate the two personalities. Discretion sparingly effects, classical culture on one side. Baroque exuberance, cosmopolitanism, popular culture on the other!
And yet ... When questioned specifically Grau-Garriga, we get some answers. They are even more interesting we do not expect it really.
"I read a lot and be happy: it has a way of writing that reminds me sometimes my way of thinking. In his style there is a thread that runs itself is like a monologue that was sufficient in itself. And I like it! I think originality comes from there. We are not alone in having a mind that works like that. He found (without trying, probably because it was his nature that was there) in the general area of language and grammar of his way to write and descriptions - it describes much : he was a geographer. He does it with images of nature interspersed with historical scenes transformed in his own way. I find it amusing. And it is very dense! " It is therefore a relationship of temperament, a profound stylistic affinity (the free movement of the directing sentence," its "elasticity" Latin, "said the writer), a way to apprehend and render artistically a particular experience of the world, which would bring together the two artists. Let modestly that creators are best placed to detect these kinds of familiarity between them secretly: they are built on criteria too weak, too intimate to be easily accessible to the gaze outside reviewers, they were very exercised.
GIVE TO SEE
"I wanted to draw everything to understand it and make it known to others." (Grau-Garriga, about his early childhood drawings) The work, in Grau-Garriga, whether small or large, catch the eye immediately. It appears, showing off even with multiple powers of seduction: the theme strength, thickness or variety of pictorial material, play colors ...
Freedom, even the casual compositions, underscored by the frequent breakdown of old segments of frames used by the drips and the apparent anarchy of impasto paint, are first made to retain the attention. We recognize there may be a typical processes parades fairs, where it is imperative to catch the eye of passersby. The serious stuff or at least more refined will come after!
move
"Works by Josep Grau-Garriga, their sensual materials are destined to eyes, caresses the skin, thinking, emotions, pleasure. "
(Lascault Gilbert, 2002) The work is sensual. It immediately affects the colors, composition, materials used ... Even before analyzing the prints, one is captured by the methods used, often unexpected, even bizarre. We smile. It comes closer. You take a step back. Is it "paints" itself? legends evoke "mixed", a concept which allows to mix paints, fabrics, clothing, paints, all objects that evoke the life of the workshop, family, seasons, nature, the joys or misfortunes of everyday life ... For us to get into the game, or stay behind. It is the freedom of the spectator!
LANGUAGE "PRIMITIVE"
"The mystery of these forms was something sacred (...) and I perceived that the art was in the service of an idea, not forms, just intended to create beauty. "
(Grau-Garriga, about the thirteenth century Catalan frescoes, Interview by Ramon Grau Soldevila, 2005) Grau-Garriga not belong to any particular movement, even if on a particular aspect of his work he feels some affinity with other artists or with current trends. The school spirit is totally alien to him. So it's not through any classification will be found the best entry in his world.
When asked about his credentials, he often recalls the spirit of Roman frescoes, which adorned churches and monasteries in his native Catalonia. This simple and direct way to address the faithful, drawing on their experience every day it soon emerged as the most natural way to practice his art.
"I realized my first experience of mural painting in the basement of the house" , says he with a smile.
He also enjoys evoke these
"holiday decorations that the villagers were making a spontaneous and enthusiastic ... bedspreads colored balconies ... the floral decoration of the streets for the Corpus Christi" , who scored in his childhood. There are undeniably in him a longing for religious festivals, where everyone was invited to get involved. The taste of brocades, some in the sumptuous decor, theatrical "installations" is no stranger to these memories. Not by religious spirit, strictly speaking, but probably closer to what seems to be one of the wellsprings of artistic life: the sense of celebration, an event high and high life of the group.
THE TEXTILE MATERIAL NEAR THE LIFE
We quickly realize that the fabric is a preferred material of the artist. It is the instrument par excellence of the theater: sets and costumes, as we have just seen.
But it is also, in his eyes as
a "second skin". "It is closely related to the life of human beings" . In this sense, as he explained in an interview with FX Alexander, in 1994, it can become a source of emotions more direct, more intimate, more "primitive".
various objects that complete the list (always open) inclusions possible tables Grau-Garriga never belong to an impersonal system of recovery, on how that can be found in flea markets or empty garage sales. Except old cadres Baroque or nineteenth century engravings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and agricultural or artisanal, almost all these objects, especially in the last two decades, belong to the private sphere of family life of the artist. They thus have a strong autobiographical basis. Not that the artist takes to tell his life or to confess as Jean-Jacques! Or simply because it is painful for him to part with clothes or objects related to his emotional life. A large attic would suffice. But perhaps because that territorial marking is vital for him. More profoundly, and in any case, more efficiently for the viewer, because these devices are autobiographical part of its system of artistic expression: they enable him, by a set of simple projection, to reactivate the memories and emotions of each. Old razors, brushes worn, coils of wire, pots or pans, children's shoes, etc.. evoke all the time that passes, children who grow up or leave us or just the person we were a few days or weeks before, the time is already over ...
tapestry, too far workshops classics, finds shapes, colors and volumes of her own, freer, more "harsh", it is necessary in the voluptuous softness of his points, his materials ... or in the sumptuous drapery of his majesty and brilliance of its dye. Appears here a masterly expertise that goes way back! Sant Cugat had been a creative center upholsterer. Grau-Garriga helped maintain this tradition and even founded a school on site modern Catalan, opening new avenues in relation to techniques Aubusson, including Jean Lurcat was never far away.
RECURRING PROCESS: THE BONDING
Research expressiveness, as conceived by Grau-Garriga, ignore traditional distinctions of gender, those that artificially isolate painting, tapestry, drawing, printmaking. It also ignores the hierarchy of materials: noble or common, they all have a role to play!
The process of bonding or inclusion further disrupts the play of classical references. It is established in both paintings (from 70s), tapestries, sculptures and even drawings and engravings.
The goal seems to be to create a permanent nesting between the imaginary world of the artist, particularly as it appears in the composition, choice of palette, the suggestion of one or several themes, and, secondly, the "real" world of everyday life, family or social history to the present, as manifested in his loyalty or breaches its most universal humanistic ideals. Each work, each exposure and appear as a field of confrontation, as a spectacle "committed" where everyone can feel somewhat concerned that we want to get involved though. The collages are never purely aesthetic, certainly not free. They are part of a method for taking part in the viewer.
The artist does not evoke nostalgia without
"God of the holidays (her) children, who changed the streetscape of the village (...) and people were involved in this change. " To move to a larger scale is the same purpose as Grau-Garriga seeks to achieve in his" installations "ephemeral, created around events and spaces symbolically strong. Whether it'sa painting, a tapestry or a facility on site, at bottom, it is always the same: turn, transform a "Subject" to give it a light, a new meaning. We must exercise some violence or effective pedagogy to release habits: precisely, the principle of collage has the double virtue of entertaining and intriguing.
Josep Grau-Garriga 
Josep Grau-Garriga 
Josep Grau-Garriga 
