Mateo Vilagrasa

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Mateo Vilagrasa (born May 12, 1944 in San Rafael del Maestrazgo, † November 16, 2018 in La Cardosa, Catalonia ) was a Spanish painter .

Life

Mateo Vilagrasa was born in San Rafael del Maestrazgo, in eastern Spain, in 1944. During his childhood and youth he often moved with his parents in the Maestrazgo. These changes of location shape him and form the foundation for his nomadic future life. His mother, with whom he feels very connected, guides him in search of himself: “She didn't give me any colors, she taught me to paint,” he wrote later in a homage to her. His first pictures were created at the age of 16.

In the early 1960s, Vilagrasa left Spain for the first time and traveled to Paris and Germany. There he came into contact with the German expressionists Pechstein , Nolde , Beckmann and the abstract expressionism of Pollock . The following year he enrolled at the Sant Jordi Art School in Barcelona. Two years later he broke off his studies and left Spain , which was determined by the Franco regime. He travels back to Germany via Paris. Frankfurt becomes his residence, from there he explores Europe. There are stays in Sweden, Holland and Finland, and he lives in Italy and Greece for another year.

In 1971 Vilagrasa returned to Frankfurt for a longer period. He studies engraving, lithography and photography, is a member of the Professional Association of Visual Artists (BBK) and co-founder of the Frankfurt art collective. Together with the German-Israeli painter Max Weinberg he shares a studio of the BBK in the Carmelite Monastery and deals intensively with materials, resins, mineral pigments, methacrylate, glass fibers and others. A rich artistic oeuvre was created during his time in Frankfurt, and collectors and gallery owners became aware of him.

In 1976 Vilagrasa returned to Spain, lived in Nerja and Ibiza and spent six months in Marrakech. He settles in Vinaros and moves to Barcelona in 1978. He moved into a large studio by the sea in an old factory in the Poble Nou district. Vilagrasa develops new forms there, his painting takes a turn that can be described as urbanistic. During this time he was drawn to Frankfurt, Munich, Marrakech and Essaouira (Morocco) again and again. In 2005 he moved to Vila-Rodona in Tarragona, where an unfortunate fall in August 2006 led to his quadriplegia . This is followed by years in the Valle de Hebrón Hospital and the Guttmann Institute in Barcelona. In 2009, Mateo Vilagrasa settled in La Cardosa (Lleida). He lived there with his wife and partner, the artist Montse Gomis, until his death in 2018.

plant

Vilagrasa's early works range between figuration and abstraction. There follows a phase in which conceptualism and matter come together. In the mid-eighties he paints urban landscapes, spaces around an idea, in which lines are constructed and color becomes the protagonist: He dissects the frozen anatomy of a city, which is transformed into a boundary of itself. In the nineties, with the series “Europe”, he breaks into broadening perspectives and spaces in which expression is softened with conceptual rigor.

At the turn of the century, Vilagrasa began his series “Sediments” with the Conservatory mural from the Hotel Arts Barcelona. His painting takes on a monochrome look. The sediment of the pigments allows the heaviest colors to be seen through the brightest, making the artist's intervention invisible. He creates color with such a precise range and nuance, with such a subtlety in rhythm, with such an abundance of vibrations and at the same time with such a waste of sensitivity where the search for harmony and light predominates

Rafael Argullol, writer and philosopher, says of Mateo Vilagrasa: "We are hardly used to such a confluence of painting and knowledge, more precisely to the symbiosis between painter and thinker.

During his nomadism, 36 unique art books were created, which are the essence of his work. In addition, he is always accompanied on his travels by his diaries, in which we find pictures and writings about art, thoughts and everything that has happened ... ("Quaderns i llibres heterònims"). His unique art books and diaries form the basis of the book “El Libro de Libros”, which Vilagrasa is bringing out in 2017 in a two-volume edition together with his assistant René Rodriguez.

"I am a creator who neither specializes nor participates in the creation of a one-dimensional society or collaborates with it, nor commercializes my ego. An I in constant construction in harmony with life, with the flow of existence, in the sense of the Erasing my traces, because what matters is not the classification. " Mateo Vilagrasa

In 2001 Mateo Vilagrasa met Rainer Pudenz, director of the Frankfurt Chamber Opera , in Frankfurt . The artist's paintings become a source of inspiration for the sets of the Frankfurt Chamber Opera. Vilagrasa's first scenography was created in 2003 for the opera Don Giovanni. From this point on, all further productions will be implemented together. For the "Winterreise" by Robert Schubert there is a co-production by Vilagrasa, Pudenz and the contemporary composer Andrea Cavallari . Vilagrasa creates a large installation for the piece, world premiere in 2007, further performances in 2016 at the Suona Contemporanea Festival in the Museo Bargello, Florence, resumption in 2018.

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1966: Casa de la Cultura, Teruel, Spain
  • 1970: DIAG Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany
  • 1972: Galeria 33, Paris, France
  • 1972: Galerie Möring, Wiesbaden, Germany
  • 1976: Galeria Itxaso, Zaragoza, Spain
  • 1976: Taller de Picasso, Barcelona, ​​Spain
  • 1978: Galeria Wynn, Bagur, Gerona, Spain
  • 1981: Galería Brossoli, Barcelona, ​​Spain
  • 1981: Galerie Bunch and Kästner, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
  • 1982: Galerie Magus, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
  • 1990: Center Cultural “Sa Nostra”, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
  • 1990: Art Cologne, Galerie Hermanns, Cologne, Germany
  • 1990: Galerie Hermanns, Munich, Germany
  • 1992: Galeria Trece, Ventalló, Gerona, Spain
  • 1992: Arco 92, Galerie Hermanns, Spain
  • 1993: Galerie Karl Pfefferle, Munich, Germany
  • 1997: Ephemeral sculpture “El Muro”, Monte Toro, Menorca, Spain
  • 1998: “Das Ding”, Casal Sollerich, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
  • 1998: Ephemeral sculpture “El Muro”, Placa Alcalde Marçet, Sabadell, Spain
  • 2001: Galeria Isabel de Miguel, Munich, Germany
  • 2005/1999: Galeria Ignacio de Lassaletta, Barcelona, ​​Spain
  • 2008: Exhibition Bosque de Estilitas and presentation of the sculpture El Estilita, Castell de la Cardosa, Spain
  • 2014/15: “Sedimentos punto cero” Galeria Ignacio de Lassaletta, Barcelona, ​​Spain
  • 2018: "Quaderns i llibres heterònims" and presentation of the book 'Libro de Libros' at IEI, Institut d'Estudis Ilerdencs, Lleida
  • 2018: "La Luz" and German presentation of the book 'Libro de Libros' at the Instituto Cervantes, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Public collections (selection)

  • Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, ​​Spain
  • Municipal Gallery in Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany
  • Museum of Concrete Art, Ingolstadt, Germany
  • Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Villafamés, Castellón, Spain
  • Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Nicaragua, Nicaragua
  • La Fábrica. Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Abarca de Campos, Spain
  • Palacio de la Virreina, Barcelona, ​​Spain

literature

Books by Mateo Vilagrasa

  • Libro de Libros. Editorial Godoy. Murcia 2017.

Books and catalogs about Mateo Vilagrasa (selection)

  • Montse Gomis (Ed.): Mateo Vilagrasa: Poble Nou 1985-1999. Art book. Editorial Godoy. Murcia 1999.
  • Casa Elizalde (ed.): Mateo Vilagrasa: Barcelona, ​​una raó per pintar. Exhibition catalog. Barcelona 1986.
  • Chamber Opera Frankfurt (Ed.): Mateo Vilagrasa: "La Luz". Exhibition catalog. Frankfurt am Main 2018.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mateo Vilagrasa: Libro de Libros . Ed .: Mateo Vilagrasa. Editorial Godoy, Murcia 2017.
  2. ↑ Chamber Opera Frankfurt (Ed.): Catalog Mateo Vilagrasa - La Luz . Frankfurt 2018.
  3. ↑ Daniel Giralt Miracle: THE THING. Condes de Sert Hall “Between Street, City and House” . Palma de Mallorca 1989.
  4. ↑ a b castelldelacardosa. Retrieved April 26, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Rafael Argullol: Mateo Vilagrasa, El conociumiento del origen . Barcelona 1983.
  6. ^ Lluïsa Borràs: A medio camino entre realidad y poesia . Casa Elizalde 1986.
  7. ↑ Rafael Argullol: Europe. ASB Gallery . Barcelona 1990.
  8. ↑ Lluïsa Borràs: Catalog Galería Trece . Ventalló 1992.
  9. ↑ Rafael Argullol: Libro de Libros . Ed .: Mateo Vilagrasa. Murcia 2017.
  10. ↑ Francesc Miralles, Rafael Corral, Carles Sanuy: Mateo Vilagrasa: Quaderns i llibres heterònims . Ed .: Institut d'Estudis Ilerdencs. Lleida 2018.
  11. ↑ Mateo Vilagrasa: Nómada. Diario de un pensador que pinta . Ed .: Mateo Vilagrasa. Editorial Godoy, Murcia 2017.
  12. ↑ Andrea Cavallari: Andrea Cavallari. Retrieved April 26, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Chamber Opera Frankfurt: Chamber Opera Frankfurt. Retrieved April 26, 2018 .
  14. ^ Karl Pfefferle: Archive. Retrieved April 26, 2018 .
  15. ^ Ciudad Pintura: Ciudad Pintura. Retrieved April 26, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Galería Ignacio de Lassaletta: Artistas. Retrieved April 26, 2018 .
  17. ↑ Institut d'estudes Ilerdencs: Exposicions passades. Institut d'estudes Ilerdencs, accessed on May 15, 2018 (Spanish).
  18. ^ Instituto Cervantes: "The Light". Instituto Cervantes, accessed May 15, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona: Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona. Retrieved April 26, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Vilagrasa, Mateo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish painter
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH San Rafael del Maestrazgo
DATE OF DEATH 16th November 2018
Place of death La Cardosa, Catalonia