Grau, Xavier

Xavier Grau (Barcelona, 1951)

Grau is one of the most relevant figures of contemporary painting in the nineties.

His work evokes the American abstracts. It appears to be a spontaneous painting, full of gesture and color, but it responds to a profound idea of structure and composition.

Grau's painting is a succession of overlapping layers. The lines and planes of color are applied in successive layers, so that the final result reveals the different layers of pigment that have accumulated. It is a process of correction or redefinition in which the last stroke is reworked by a later one. Hence the dense and baroque appearance that Xavier Grau's work can have. It is a cumulative development of repairs.

In his engravings, Grau embodies the same discursive principles as in his painting.