Grau Garriga

The tapestries of Spanish artist Josep Grau-Garriga interweave disquieting rags and bunches of cords that emerge from torn surfaces. His is an art of tragic tatters, noble gestures, festering eroticism. This Catalan weaver achieves his effects by using unorthodox materials, ultrathick reliefs fraying with a deliberate aura of vagueness and translucent patches that leave the basic warp visible. Grau-Garriga pioneered the double-faced wall hanging with its back as valid as its front. His pullulating pieces spilled over into huge woven environments; then, in the '80s, he began turning out ecological symbols. In this lavish tribute, art historian Puig ties the artist's restless inventions to the political turbulence of Franco's Spain. He uncovers common threads linking the epic murals, the collages and the symbolic pieces with their yin-yang circles, doves and spheres. (March)