Deixa’t créixer les ales

During Barcelona Gallery Weekend we also present a previously unseen selection of original drawings by Josefa Tolrà (1880– 1959) curated by Pilar Bonet. Tolrà, a visionary artist and self-taught medium, inscribed her practice in the spiritual realm. Her work is deeply connected to the body—not as an object, but as a channel for transformation and healing. Through trance, energy work, and drawing as a therapeutic tool, Josefa Tolrà mapped the invisible from the bodily experience.

Josefa Tolrà, Cabrils (1880-1959)

Josefa Tolrà i Abril was born on January 6, 1880, under the sign of Capricorn, a date that in many cultures is considered to invoke the power of revelation that allows visionaries, mediums and mystics to receive messages that are not of this world. She is the most representative Catalan medium and artist of visionary art of the first half of the 20th century and one of the most inspiring on the European scene. Outside the styles of the time, without references or models, her work delves into the mystery and beauty of images.

She attended school until the age of eleven, and as a young woman she worked in a factory that introduced her to the ideology of anarchist fraternity and the social spiritualism practiced by working-class families. She saw the expansion of these philosophies as a driving force for social change. In spiritualist and theosophical circles they were already guided by the motto “Towards God with Love and Science”. These doctrines recognized communication with spirits and reincarnation: “the dead are invisible but not absent”.

She had three children: Joan, Maria and Pere. The family of 5 lived happily in a village surrounded by nature and landscape, a paradise that Tolrà called “Bright town”. But in 1924, with the death of her youngest son, Tolrà’s world turned dark. The hardships of the Civil War and the death of his other son in a concentration camp pushed her into a depression.

Between 1941 and 1959, she drew and embroidered without references, patterns or corrections, forming her practice between her work and her visions. She drew with her eyes open and a quick hand, exclaiming “look what they made me do from above!”. She worked at home and never sold her work. She drew angelic icons and scenes of great intensity and mystery in ink, pen or gouache on paper: angels, mermaids, fairies, the Gardens of Eden, symbolic animals or figures of light. The medium of Cabrils perceived the aura of people and communicated with spirits to help those in need. Psychic automatism and astral travel took her to unknown worlds. She died on October 15, the same day as the mystic Saint Teresa of Jesus.

Her work is preserved in museums of great international importance, and has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2022 and at the MNAC museum in Barcelona in 2023. The Josefa Tolrà Foundation works for the research, conservation of copyright and diffusion of her visionary legacy.

Josefa Tolrà made more than a hundred drawings, illustrated and wrote numerous notebooks, composed poems, transcribed channeled messages and embroidered shawls with fluid shapes. She carried out all these activities through her experience as a medium, in contact with the spirits of the dead. She worked with patience and dedication from her home, without ceasing to attend to her family and the neighbors who visited her in search of her help as a seer and healer.

A gentle woman, Tolrà began drawing to cope with the deep sadness caused by the death of two of her children. “Only when I draw I feel at peace,” she used to say. She never considered herself an artist nor did she seek recognition, since her creativity was an antidote to the rational order and a way to overcome existential pain. Without studies or artistic influences, her work is spontaneous and at the same time meticulous; the result of a patient graphic dedication and extrasensory inspiration. A form of democratic mysticism.

Today Josefa Tolrà is considered the most important visionary artist of the first half of the 20th century in Spain. Some of her works are preserved in international museums and have been exhibited in major events and exhibitions. She was born, lived and died in the small town of Cabrils, where she met Moisès Villèlia and Magda Bolumar. Thanks to them, she received visits from figures such as Joan Brossa and other members of the Dau al Set group, as well as from the cultural association Club 29, among them the critic Alexandre Cirici or the psychiatrist Joan Obiols.

Currently, the Josefa Tolrà Foundation – Visionary Art, guard the most important collection of her legacy, with more than a hundred works that include drawings, embroideries and life notebooks. The Catalan medium is part of a genealogy of visionary artists born in the late 19th century in Europe and today revalued in the 21st century: Madge Gill, Hilma af Klint, Emma Kunz, Nina Karasek or Hélène Smith. The works are messages from the other world and an antidote to the pain of the soul.

Deixa’t créixer les ales (Let your wings grow)

In a conversation on October 29, 2012, artist Magda Bolumar recalled her experiences with medium and creator Josefa Tolrà. Both were neighbors in the small town of Cabrils and, when talking about the aura that Tolrà perceived in the sculptor Moisès Villèlia, Bolumar’s partner, she recalled this comment:

One day, Josefa Tolrà said to him:

“Moisès, you are a being of light. Let your wings grow.”

“Let your wings grow” is the title of an exhibition curated by Pilar Bonet, an art historian, critic and curator who has dedicated her career to researching and preserving the legacy of Josefa Tolrà-Visionary Art.

The exhibition includes a series of unseen drawings made by the author between the decades of the 1940s and 1950s.

For the first time, these works are exhibited in a gallery, thanks to the generosity of the family and the Josefa Tolrà Foundation – Art Visionari, who have decided to share this valuable legacy with the public and collectors. True to the spirit of the artist, who never wanted to profit from his creation, 75% of the income obtained from this exhibition will be allocated entirely to the Foundation, in order to promote new research and ensure the preservation of her artistic and spiritual heritage.

The drawings on display are the result of his connection with the “beings of light” and the souls of the dead. Images and texts intertwine in calligrams that emerged from automatism, loaded with messages from the afterlife written in a poetic and telegraphic language. Tolrà often justified her creations as works dictated by the “beings”, and stated: “My little brothers always accompany me”.

Alienated from any style or artistic trend of her time, her work is born from a visionary impulse, sustained by the deep desire to be reunited with her dead children. Linked to spiritualism and theosophy, forms of modern, secular and non-dogmatic spirituality, as well as to graphic automatism and a life mission that she assumed with total dedication, Josefa Tolrà invites us to look beyond what is visible and perceive the subtle energies that run through existence and its transformations.

Her work reveals what the eyes do not see, but that the soul does perceive.

Research and exhibition proposal: Pilar Bonet Julve

Works: Col·lecció Fundació Josefa Tolrà-Art Visionari

Collaboration: Visionary Women Art – Research Group

Alma. Artistas visionarias en España (1900-2000)