The Tapestry of Tarragona

Joan Miró i Ferrà (1893-1983) - Josep Royo (1945) On 27 September 1968, Joan Miró signed a drawing, a preliminary sketch in which he indicated the different parts that made up the Tapestry of Tarragona to be created by Josep Royo. This drawing was a gesture that revealed the gratitude of the maestro, before the hardship that life brings, towards a young doctor, Dr. Rafel Orozco, who attended the artist’s only daughter, Maria Dolors Miró, on New Year's Eve 1966 when she was hit by a train at the crossing in Mont-roig del Camp. This terrible event, and the generosity of Dr. Orozco, meant that payment for the medical attention she received was not paid with money, but with a request for a painting for the new medical centre of which he was the director, the now closed Red Cross Hospital of Tarragona. The response, after a month, was a painting that was an advance of a more ambitious project that would begin a new angle in the career of Joan Miró: a large scale tapestry. Joan Miró christened the work “Tapestry of Tarragona” and commissioned it to the young artist Josep Royo, who had contributed to the renovation of the Aymat Tapestry Factory in Sant Cugat del Vallès, which would later be known as the Catalan Tapestry School. That project was the start of a road shared between Joan Miró and Josep Royo that impelled them to research new spaces for creating their work together, arriving at the emblematic place "La Farinera de Tarragona” (the Flour Mill of Tarragona) that saw many works of great importance for many creators appear from within its walls. The Red Cross still owns the Tapestry of Tarragona and has loaned it to the Tarragona Provincial Council so that it can be put on display in this Museum of Modern Art.