Joan Barbarà Spain, 1927-2013

Still Life with Grapes represents a contemporary vision of the genre, far removed from classical canons. At the centre, the blue grape clusters, rendered with minimal, essential strokes, stand out against a background built from multiple material layers, created through mixed media techniques.

The palette is sober and restrained, dominated by worn whites, greys, blacks, and soft blues. Its formal language resonates with pintura matérica and the European Informalism of the 1950s–60s, where gesture, texture, and trace become the true protagonists.

The stained and worked frame becomes an active part of the composition, reinforcing the idea that the creative process and the very atmosphere of the studio are themselves artistic matter.

The grape cluster—traditionally a classical symbol of Mediterranean abundance—here becomes an almost abstract motif, a synthesis of form and concept. Joan Barbarà thus constructs a work that oscillates between the figurative and the conceptual, between tradition and rupture, revealing his ongoing exploration between painting and printmaking, between image and matter.