The textile art of Josep Grau-Garriga

The textile art of Josep Grau-Garriga is associated with the resurgence of the contemporary tapestry and its vindication as an autonomous plastic territory.

The textile art of Josep Grau-Garriga (Sant Cugat del Vallès, 1929 - Angers, France, 2011) is associated with the resurgence of the contemporary tapestry and its claim as an autonomous plastic territory. It was at the end of the fifties that in Paris – in the workshop of Jean Lurçat – he discovered his revolutionary possibilities of expression, which he materialized in the planning and direction of the Escola Catalana del Tapís , an innovative center born from the textile substrate from the old Aymat tapestry factory, in Sant Cugat del Vallès. Sensitively connected to his origins, it is in his native population where he connects with nature and discovers the humblest materials and raw materials to collect the presence of the earth, uniting art and life through matter.

A textile artist with an independent look.

A true pioneer in the renewal of this discipline, the integration of techniques, materials and languages -interconnected from the same aesthetic concept-, as well as his multidisciplinary activity make Josep Grau-Garriga an independent and daring artist, of profound intentions, which we can describe as a global creator. Tapestry, painting, drawing, sculpture and the environment formed his creative settings, focusing his observation on roots, memory, nature, the social context and the autobiographical view.

In the practice of his environmental work and in the three-dimensional occupation of space with montages and installations, he incorporates the lesson of conceptual and ephemeral art. These environments were based on compositions and textile structures that occupied the space and challenged the viewer, who became a participant in the work by inhabiting it.

Exhibition Josep Grau-Garriga. Dialogue of light

The variable installation Diáleg de llume (1986-1988) presented by the MACBA focuses on the dissemination of the art of weaving. Three large tapestries have been recovered that make up a single work and that Grau-Garriga produced between 1985 and 1988 during the stage that investigated transparencies and projected shadows. He adapted it to various architectures, including the one he did together for the first time at Palau Robert in 1988. It also includes a series of photographs of the creation process, documents and drawings of different environments made by the artist. It is a project by Núria Montclús and Esther Grau, in collaboration with Àlex Castro and Alba Clavell.

Diáleg de llum is the first of a series of research and exhibition proposals promoted by the museum, which wants to rescue relevant practices and agents within the local and international scene and which have not always been sufficiently recognized and, in some cases, have left out of the contemporary account. Likewise, he wants to claim techniques relegated by traditional historiography treated as minor art.