EMILIO GRAU SALA (Barcelona, 1911 - 1977). "Three women". Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower right corner.

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19th & 20th Century Contemporary Art - Select...

By Setdart Auction House

Jun 17, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-06-17 06:15:00 2021-06-17 06:15:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : 19th & 20th Century Contemporary Art - Select Lots https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/setdart-auction-house/19th-20th-century-contemporary-art---select-lots-7081
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• Lot Description
  EMILIO GRAU SALA (Barcelona, 1911 - 1977). "Three women". Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower right corner. Measurements: 73 x 60 cm; 96 x 83 cm (frame). The feminine universe fascinated Grau Sala, and that fascination translates into domestic scenes that despite their familiarity are located halfway between reality and reverie. Boudoir scenes such as the one we are dealing with bear witness to this: color takes on an absolute protagonism, diluting lines and shapes. In this way, an atmosphere of light and independent color is constructed, nuanced by Grau Sala's highly personal textures, which play at confusing the space, awakening the viewer's imagination. A young woman is being combed by her maid, while her friend leans on the back of a chair, and it seems that it is her own self-absorption that creates the dreamlike universe that envelops her. Son of the draftsman Juan Grau Miró, Grau Sala combined his attendance at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona with an essentially self-taught training. In 1930 he held his first exhibition at the Badriñas gallery in Barcelona. At the beginning of the Civil War, in 1936, he moved to Paris, where he settled in the Spanish artists' colony of Montparnasse. That same year he was awarded the first Carnegie Prize. In the twenty-five years he stayed there, he was closely acquainted with the avant-garde, although he always opted for a colorist figuration, derived from impressionism and fauvism. It was a path already taken by the commercial circuit, surpassed in terms of novelty by cubism and surrealism, but which was kept alive at a high level thanks to masters such as Bonnard, Chagall and Dufy. In fact, he soon became known in Paris as the successor of the Impressionist spirit and values, directly related to Bonnard and Vuillard. This stylistic choice of Grau Sala conditioned that of his wife, Ángeles Santos, who abandoned her singular surrealism for a more conventional landscape, a decision that critics did not hesitate to regret. The success of his style led Grau Sala to devote himself also to graphic work (engravings, lithographs, illustrations for novels, posters...), as well as theatrical sets. The grace and finesse of his characters, the vivacity of the colors and the elegant atmosphere of the environments that he captured made him reap great success and recognition all over the world. He held several solo exhibitions, mainly in Barcelona and Paris, but also in cities such as New York, Toulouse, London and Los Angeles. In 1963 he returned to Barcelona, when the stagnant figuration of Franco's Spain began to be challenged by Oteiza, Chillida, Tàpies and the collective "El Paso". However, he remained faithful to his style, and until his death in 1975 he worked within his own personal line, centered on his favorite themes, female figures, interiors and landscapes, in a vaguely classical, nostalgic time setting of the nineteenth century. After his death, and for more than a decade, Grau Sala was overshadowed by the multiple novelties that were emerging in democratic Spain, but from the 1990s onwards, the new boom in mid-level collecting relaunched Grau Sala, as he was understood as an interpreter of Impressionism in a Spanish key. Works by Emilio Grau Sala are kept in the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Esteban Vicente Museum of Contemporary Art and the Óscar Domínguez Institute of Contemporary Art and Culture.
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