Museums often exhibit works that have traveled extensively. Participating in various exhibitions worldwide, these pieces, safely encased in comfortable packaging and with appropriate insurance, have been obliged to undertake journeys to their destinations. This is particularly true in recent years, with exhibitions showcasing works that had previously never been seen outside their usual settings.
The ‘Tarragona Tapestry’ by Joan Miró & Josep Royo, created in Sant Cugat in collaboration between both artists in 1970, has not traveled extensively. Its status as an emblematic original and the fear of damage have often led to requests for its exhibition being denied. Consequently, apart from its various locations—first at the Red Cross Hospital, then at the Museum of Modern Art, from there to the Museum of History, and finally at the Museum of Modern Art of the Tarragona Provincial Council—and considering its journey from Sant Cugat to Barcelona for its presentation (an exhibition at Sala Gaspar), along with perhaps a few other brief trips that I do not recall exactly, these factors have made the Tapestry a rather stable exhibition piece. Since its transfer to the Museum of Modern Art in 2008, it has received a multitude of visitors. The publication of the book ‘Miró-Royo. La Farinera, the loom of the world,’ and the exhibition of the ‘Sobreteixims’ at the Miró Foundation, have undeniably contributed to the understanding of the ‘Tarragona Tapestry’ and its history. Furthermore, the admirable educational outreach carried out by the Museum regarding this work ensures that it is no longer unfamiliar to citizens or to the eyes of new generations. Joan Miró donated it to the Tarragona Red Cross through Dr. Rafael Orozco, who had requested a work for the hospital in exchange for his fees, after a daring surgical intervention saved the life of Maria Dolors, the artist’s daughter, who had suffered a serious railway accident on New Year’s Day 1966, in Mont-Roig. Not only is it an emblematic work for the city of Tarragona, bearing its name in the title, but it is also a pivotal work in the artist’s career, as it incorporates many of the material investigations that Miró observed in Josep Royo’s work, which were comparable to those he had carried out in the 1920s. In addition to being the first work they created in collaboration, it was from this collaboration that, for almost magical reasons, ‘La Farinera’ was born—the space that Josep Royo directed for nearly ten years. There, with the impetus of Joan Miró and the funding of André Maegh, unparalleled works in art history were created, such as the ‘Grand Tapestry’ of the World Trade Center in New York, tragically lost in the attack on the Twin Towers; the one at the Miró Foundation in Barcelona; the one at the National Gallery of Art in Washington; the striking and experimental ‘Sobreteixims’; and the ‘Burnt Canvases’.
Last Monday, the 24th, the exhibition ‘Art for Life,’ presented by the British Red Cross, was inaugurated at the Henry Moore Gallery of the Royal College of Art in London. This exhibition will showcase to the public some of the donated works by internationally renowned artists that form the collection of the Catalan Red Cross. The ‘Tarragona Tapestry,’ as gallerist Francesc Mestre, the exhibition coordinator, states, is the great ‘star’ of this exhibition.
Nurse Paloma Rossetti, in her World War II Red Cross uniform, in front of the ‘Tarragona Tapestry’ at the London exhibition. Published in Diari de Tarragona.
