- Artist
- Joan-Josep Tharrats 1918–2001
- Original title
- Quien mira ...
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 1299 × 1619 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by the Directorate General of Cultural Relations, Spanish Foreign Ministry 1962
- Reference
- T00507
Catalogue entry
Joan-Josep Tharrats born 1918
T00507 Quien mira ...
1961
Inscribed 'Tharrats | 61' b.r.; also, on back of canvas, 'Tharrats | 1961' and 'QUIEN MIRA EL GRAN CONCIERTO | DE AQUESTOS RESPLANDORES ETERNALES, | SU MOVIMIENTO CIERTO, | SUS PASOS DESIGUALES, | Y EN PROPORCIÒN CONCORDE | TAN IGUALES'
Oil on canvas, 51 1/8 x 63 3/4 (130 x 162)
Presented by the Directorate General of Cultural Relations, Spanish Foreign Ministry 1962
Prov:
Purchased by the Directorate General from the artist
Exh:
Modern Spanish Painting, Tate Gallery, January-February 1962 (77); Southampton Art Gallery, March 1962 (77); Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, March-April 1962 (77); Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, April-May 1962 (77)
The artist says that he derives the titles of his works from appropriate passages from the texts of the classic poets of Spanish or Catalan literature. For the painting 'Quien mira ...' he took the words from a poem by Fray Luis de León (1527-91), which has the title 'Noche serena' (letter of 20 June 1963).
The passage transcribed on the back can be translated roughly as follows: 'whoever observes the magnificent harmony of these eternal splendours, its assured progression, its varying, yet in consistent degree constant pace ...'
Published in:
Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.717-18, reproduced p.717
Explore
- abstraction(8,615)
-
- non-representational(6,161)
-
- colour(2,481)
- gestural(891)
- irregular forms(2,007)