Since his beginnings as an informalist painter and immediately afterwards as one of the key figures of the new figurativism, Giralt’s painting has been a convergence of colour and graphics, of irony and allusion, of evocation and collage, in fragmentations that require a particular effort by the eye and which place his work in the L'Ère du soupçon spoken of by Nathalie Sarraute. As of old, Giralt still requires a synthesis to be made in the viewer’s mind between what the eye sees and what the brain senses; he still excludes passive viewers in favour of those willing to go along with him, to be open to his humorous allusions and his double and implied meanings.
There have been several reencounters in the spring of this year, brought to light by the Salón de los 16 contemporary art initiative. A reencounter of Giralt with himself on his restating that “When I start a painting I never take a sketch or drawing as a starting point but rather start painting with the aim of carrying through a predefined intention.” Hence this is a reencounter with a process, but also with his expressive resources: with colour, first of all, and then with graphics and with collage. A reencounter with counterpoised opposites in a composition dominated by rhythm.
A reencounter by the viewer with work that is a continuation and yet different, more daring and categorical, in which what is suggested by fragments relating to a whole has more coherence, force and brilliance.
María Lluísa Borras
Extract from a text entitled Reencuentros (Reencounters), from the catalogue for an exhibition at Galería Rosa Ventosa, Barcelona (1996)