Emilia Xargay, A Stylised Ceramic Bull / Torro c1950
The Sculptors Emilia Xargay, J. Casellas and Francesc Torres
Monsó (XARCATO) worked together during the 1950’s and
created a collection of ceramics which were numbered (this being number
31). They used liquid clay poured into a plaster mould made from an
original drawing, it was then decorated with Titanlux paints (used and
valued byJoan Miro and many of the famous Paris artists). These pieces
were created in the basement Studio of the home of Emilia Xargay.
Emilia Xargay (1927-2002) Trained as a painter in the workshop
of Joan Orihuel and had her first exhibition at seventeen. Later she
took a more academic approach, marked by the presence of a geometric
figurative reality based expressionism, heavily influenced by her
travels in South America . In 1951 she founded the Grup Indika (1950)
and was part of the Cercle d'Art d'Avui.
She worked with different techniques, all imbued with the desire to
experiment and constantly evolving: painting, sculpture, jewelry, mural,
ceramics, enamel, drawings, posters, wallpaper.
Xargay has works in museums of São Paulo , Perpignan , the History
Museum of the City of Girona and the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona .
Among other awards she received the 1955 Award of the Ministry of Public
Instruction Brazil and the Hispano-American Biennial of Art in
Barcelona.
El Torro / The Bull features often in her work both in bronze
sculpture and in drawings, inspired by primitive forms these studio
ceramic pieces in turn probably inspired the British ceramicists William
Newland, Margaret Hine and Nicholas Vergette who travelled to Spain
before their 1954 show at The Studio Club in Swallow Street