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Grau Sala - Ref 4235

 - Ref 4235
 
Dancers
Gouache and watercolour
76 x 55,5 cm
From the 50,s

Price: Inquire
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Emili Grau Sala (Barcelona 1911 - Paris 1975) was a Catalan painter associated with the "Escuela de París" (School of Paris).

Born to the draftsman Juan Grau Miró, Grau Sala attended the School of Fine Arts, but his education is considered mostly self-taught. He held his first exhibition in 1930 at the "Galería Badriás" in Barcelona.

With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Grau Sala left Spain with his wife, the painter Ángeles Santos, and settled in Paris, where he would stay for 25 years.

In Paris, Grau Sala closely encountered avant-garde movements but opted for a gentle and colorful figuration, influenced by Impressionism and Fauvism. Although this style was surpassed in novelty by Cubism and Surrealism, it remained vibrant thanks to masters like Pierre Bonnard, Chagall, and Raoul Dufy, whom Grau Sala admired.

Grau Sala’s style, characterized by a vague Impressionism with a lively and varied palette, found acceptance in the publishing and graphic world. He illustrated editions of "Madame Bovary," "Les Fleurs du Mal," and "Bel Ami," designed posters, and produced lithographs and etchings.

In 1963, Grau Sala returned to Barcelona, at a time when the stagnant figurative art of Francoist Spain was being challenged by artists like Oteiza, Chillida, Antoni Tàpies, and the collective "El Paso" (Antonio Saura, Manolo Millares, Rafael Canogar). However, he remained loyal to his style, producing a substantial body of work until his death in 1975. His paintings often featured female figures, interiors, and landscapes, set in a vaguely classical and nostalgic 19th-century atmosphere—a decorative painting that avoided taking artistic risks.

Other works

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