Catalonian-born Gironella grew up in a family of cork-makers and spent much of his adult life engaged in the profession. After serving in the Spanish Civil War, he began to carve increasingly complex reliefs from the material, drawing his ideas from literature, myth and religion. Gironella believed that the organic shape of cork should decide his imagery, an approach which had a profound influence on Dubuffet’s own figurative oeuvre.

The Catalonian-born Gironella grew up in a family of cork-makers and spent much of his adult life engaged in the profession. After serving in the Spanish Civil War, he began to carve increasingly complex reliefs from the material, drawing his ideas from literature, myth and religion. Gironella believed that the organic shape of cork should decide his imagery, an approach which seemed to influence Dubuffet’s own figurative oeuvre.