Emilio Grau Sala (1911-1975) - Interior con figura

EMILIO GRAU SALA (Barcelona, 1911 – 1977).
“Interior with Figure”.
Oil on panel.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Dimensions: 47 x 56 cm; 71.5 x 80.5 cm (frame).
Grau Sala, a distinguished exponent of the more vitalist facet of the School of Paris, unfolds in this scene a sensorial image of astonishing subtlety and chromatic richness. The scene is built as a formal game of contrasts, with a woman seated and dressed in black, placed in the foreground of a colorful stage. The emotional isolation accentuates the introspective character of the scene. And yet, everything is bound together by an implosion of color: myriads of overlapped tonalities that do not dissolve the forms, but, paradoxically, enhance them, endowing them with an ethereal elegance.
Grau Sala trained at the School of Fine Arts of Barcelona, a learning that he complemented with essentially self-taught study. In 1930 he held his first exhibition at the Badriñas Gallery in the city, Barcelona. When the Civil War broke out he moved to Paris, and in the same year 1936 he won the Carnegie Prize. In the twenty-five years he remained in the French capital he came to know the vanguards up close, although he always leaned toward a colorful figuration derived from Impressionism and Fauvism. In fact, he soon became known in Paris as a successor to the spirit and values of Impressionism, directly related to Bonnard and Vuillard. The success of his style led Grau Sala to dedicate himself also to graphic work and scenography. The grace and refinement of his characters, the vivacity of the colors, and the elegant atmosphere of the environments he depicted earned him great success and recognition around the world. He held several solo exhibitions, mainly in Barcelona and Paris, but also in cities such as New York, Toulouse, London, or Los Angeles. In 1963 he returned to Barcelona, when the stagnant figurative style of Francoist Spain began to be challenged by Oteiza, Chillida, Tàpies, and the group “El Paso”. Nevertheless, he remained faithful to his style, and until his death in 1975 he worked within his own personal line, focused on his favorite themes—female figures, interiors, and landscapes—in a vaguely classical temporal ambiance, nostalgic of the 19th century. After his death, and for more than a decade, Grau Sala was eclipsed by the myriad novelties that flowed into democratic Spain, but from the 1990s, the new rise of mid-level collecting relaunched Grau Sala, recognizing him as a Spanish-key interpreter of Impressionism. Works by Emilio Grau Sala are preserved in the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Esteban Vicente Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Oscar Domínguez Institute of Art and Contemporary Culture."