Joaquim Capdevila: precious metals as artistic expression
Joaquim Capdevila has reinvented jewels as a means of artistic expression. The Design Museum of Barcelona is showing a retrospective.
The Magic Tricks of Bill Viola
The art of Bill Viola (Nova York, 1951) has got a hypnotic quality so intense that it fascinates and annoys in equal measure: the same is true for the mystical and spiritual substrata of his work.
The Opera Makes History
CaixaForum Barcelona tells us the story of modern Europe through eight operas. This is a high fidelity exhibition that has to be visited using the audio guide.
Solsona to give new life to the paintings of Sant Quirze de Pedret
In Solsona the paintings of Sant Quirze de Pedret are the star pieces of the museum situated inside the impressive Neoclassical building of the Episcopal Palace, next to the cathedral.
The Modern Art Museum of Tarragona: a hundred years with Julio Antonio
The Modern Art Museum of Tarragona (MAMT) has the best collection of sculptures by Julio Antonio. The centenary of his death is a great opportunity to discover the work of this artist who is difficult to classify.
MAC: Cerdanyola has a lot to celebrate!
The Art Museum of Cerdanyola (MAC) is celebrating its tenth anniversary and the declaration of the “Dames de Cerdanyola” stained glass panels as Items of national Cultural Interest. This is a great occasion to discover its treasures.
Marès, Straight out of a Novel
The Marès Museum in Barcelona has organised a literary walk through the “sentimental museum” – a route through its collections via the Catalan literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Manresa 2022: Baroque is the future
Manresa County Museum will be completely renovated in 2022 to make it a reference for works of Catalan Baroque art. Meanwhile there are two small exhibitions that are worth a visit.
MEV: Medieval and Digital
The Episcopal Museum of Vic (MEV) holds an extraordinary collection of Romanic and Gothic art. But it has something even better: its sensitivity to teaching about the collection. When a museum does not know how to talk about its works, it should probably close.
The Prado in Vilanova i la Geltrú
The Víctor Balaguer Library and Museum shows its extraordinary collection of works from the Prado Museum in Madrid on the occasion of the bicentenary of the Prado.
Valls: the capital of love for art
The city of Valls has 24,000 inhabitants. Its museum, 2,000 works, which make up an interesting selection of the last 150 years of Catalan art.
Buster Keaton: slapstick and jazz at the CaixaForum Barcelona
December Quintet puts jazz on “The pale face” (1922) by Buster Keaton, at CaixaForum Barcelona. This is the fun sessions “Listen to the silent movies”, aimed at the family audience.
Abelló-Dalí – a tale of friendship
The Abelló Museum in Mollet del Vallès is one of the artistic treasures that you have to rediscover from time to time.
The Marès Museum Rediscovers Marès the Sculptor
Did you know that Frederic Marès is the sculptor with the greatest presence in the public space in Barcelona? Plaça Catalunya, Diagonal and even inside Santa Maria del Mar and the Palace of the Catalan Government, for example.
Shadow, Splendour and Melancholy in Catalan Art
The exhibition “Realism(s) in Catalonia 1917-1936” explores how some artists opted for a renovation of their artistic language without renouncing figuration.
The Enigma of Visibility
”la Caixa” exhibits its collection of contemporary paintings.
Prince, nothing compares to the original
Prince once said that with all the unpublished material in his mythical musical and visual ‘vault’ he could make an album a year for a century.
The Sleepwalking Antique Dealer
Dominique Lambert is twenty years old and lives in Paris. His mother, Isabelle, is a well-known psychiatrist and his father, Christophe an antique dealer or cronopio.
Miró-Gaudí-Gomis: when looks cross
This exhibition, which has been organised using the collection of foundation, looks at the aesthetic and creative affinities of Gaudí and Miró as seen through the Joaquim Gomis.
Frank Horvat: “Please don’t smile”
The Espais Volart of the Vila Casas Foundation is showing “Please don’t smile”, by the photographer Frank Horvat who, having worked relentlessly during his professional life, now offers a collection of photographs taken in the field of fashion in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
Renau: art and revolution
The anthological exhibition by Valencian Josep Renau (1907-1982) – poster-maker for the revolution – arrives in Barcelona. Introducing the international avant-gardes to Spain in the 1920s and 30s and a reference for the Catalan left in the 1970s, his criticism of American society is alarmingly modern.
Beauty XXL
On 27 June Soler y Llach will put up for auction some incredible posters from the Josep Torné collection. These are masterpieces in the world of postermaking by artists as big as Josep Renau, Ricard Opisso, Capiello, Cassandre, A. de Riquer, Ramon Casas and Segrelles.
Gino Rubert: Altarpieces and Earthly Delights of the 21st Century
Gino Rubert’s new exhibition at Galería Senda succeeds in transmitting an exceptional sensation of freedom.
Two Geniuses Face to Face: Fages and Dalí
You can never really read the work of Salvador Dalí without knowing the literary legacy of Carles Fages de Climent. This is shown by Dalí expert Josep Playà in his book, “Fages Dalí, geniuses and friends”.
Agreements and the Fight for Culture
When we talk of culture some people think that we are treading the terrain of the utopian or, even worse, the luxurious and dispensable. Opposing ideologies resign culture, in an opposing but similar way, to private initiative.
The Polyptych of the Vallès
“Vallès: manufacturing pasts, manufacturing futures” is a project in which Claudio Zulian uses the memory of the working class of the county of Vallès – an area historically and politically affiliated to the so-called “red belt” of Barcelona.
In the name of Picasso
This show in the Barcelona museum reinterprets the different facets of the artist from the point of view of ten contemporary creators. The political Picasso, the passionate Picasso and the intellectual Picasso, all covered in the story which unfolds under the curatorship of Rosa Martinez.
Lluís Hortalà or the trickery of the gaze
When you visit the Lluís Hortalà exhibition at Tecla Sala in L’Hospitalet you have to be ready for a double set of rules: those of the eye, subjected to the logical trickery of trompe-l’oeil, and those of the concept, articulated in the solid story about the exhibition by Oriol Fontdevila. But one step at a time.
Richard Learoyd, unsettling and monumental
Learoyd’s photographs are made in a very original way. It is not that he has a camera in his studio but his camera is a room in his studio.
Antoni Fabrés: Recovery Operation
The MNAC, being the national museum that it is, had the job of rescuing the wok of Antoni Fabrés – a versatile and effective artist who moved on from the academic and Orientalist approach of his early works.
Franco the Painter
All political leaders have had an artistic hobby: President Clinton played the sax, Nero the lyre, Alphonse XIII was an adult film producer and Franco liked painting.
The past chapter in La Capella
Entitled “Cerrar abriendo” (Close by opening), the sixth scene of “La Capella 25 Years After”, an exhibition in instalments which has told the story of this centre dedicated to emerging art since the month of January, through the artists that have exhibited there.
Churchill, Hitler, Eisenhower… painters
Everyone knows them as some of the most central characters in history, capable of pulling the strings during the Second World War…but when they had a moment all three would settle down to do a spot of relaxing painting as if they had never hurt a fly.
A Brief Encyclopaedia of Forgers
If right now you were looking at a factitious “Encyclopaedia of Well-known Forgers of Art”, the contents page would include creators as famous as Michelangelo and Picasso.
From a Cigarette Lighter to a Portable Lamp: the Design Museum revitalises its collection
Did you know that the refillable plastic Clipper lighter, which is sold all over the world, was designed by Enric Sardà in the early 1970s? Or that the cuddly Tous teddy bear was created by Rosa Maria Oriol in 1985 with no intention of it becoming a jewellery icon?
Unknown sisters
Clichés about the affinity between Italy and Spain aside, it is true that cultural and artistic exchanges between the two countries are less intense than one might expect. In Barcelona, an exhibition, an urban installation, workshops and other initiative are an attempt to redress this lack of reciprocal recognition.
Portraits by August Sander: appearances that don’t deceive?
The August Sander retrospective at La Virreina is exceptional in its rigorous respect for the original structure of the major project the photographer worked on during the early 1900s: People of the 20th Century.
In Combat for the Love of Art
Anyone who enters the exhibition Cinc anys a les trinxeres (Five years in the trenches) by Jesús Galdón, kind of phylacterical mirror hanging on the wall, is immediately reflected in the doorway of the El Quadern Robat gallery.
Portrait of a Venetian Lady
One of the dreams of any antiquarian-cronopio is to have a famous client visit their shop and buy everything. The possibilities are minimal but, in this business, like in life, it could happen. In fact, it did happen to a colleague of mine the day that…
Where is the Catalan Jeff Koons?
On 15 May Jeff Koons’ work “Rabbit” (1986) was sold at Christie’s in New York for 91 million dollars.
Time is on the side of the vanquished
Just when the United States once again demonstrate their untamed meddling in the internal affairs of South America and when Pedro Sánchez recognises and legitimates a self-proclaimed president in Venezuela, Macba is opening the necessary and timely exhibition Undefined territories. Perspectives on colonial legacies.
Looking Towards the Heavens from the Refuge of Art
This walk through the magnificent and sadly posthumous exhibition by Jordi Fulla at Can Framis is a silent one. It couldn’t be any other way.
The Pluralistic Imaginary of La Capella
Global cities, futuristic dystopias and universal figures of the literary and linguistic imaginary all come together in La Capella in a group show with ten heterogeneous proposals around the idea of layers or of accumulated time.
Aesthetic as anaesthesia
He’s an international photographer with an impeccable reputation, and I’ve asked him a favour, as a friend: to accompany me to the World Press Photo Exhibition (WPPh). I’m interested in his personal vision of the tragedy. Because the WPPh is one big tragedy: in the photos almost no one is smiling.
The Other Catalans of the Biennale
There is life beyond the pavilion. The Catalan art scene in Venice nudge their way into institutional projects for the Biennale and also parallel initiatives.
Halloween at the Museum
There is a day for everything but if you want to attract young people you have to celebrate at night. And that is exactly what the “Museums Night” – the cool and fun version of the formal “Museums Day” – does.
Watch out for the Statues!
Pedro Azara’s project for the Catalonia Pavilion at the Venice Biennale confronts the viewer with their own emotional weakness with a series of visceral reactions of love and hate provoked by the images.
Memory, Pain… and Poletiquette
Mauthausen was again news. We talked about the weight of memory with Jesús Galdón, the author of the plaque that, through emptiness, recalls the victims of Nazi barbarism.
Exorcism on Paper
Fourteen works on paper are exhibited at N2 gallery by eleven outstanding artists, united by their “aesthetic tendencies broken by war, interior exile, different attempts to preserve their creative freedom and the dawning following the start of democracy”.
Girona Pays Homage to Pioneering Photographer Valentí Fargnoli
What is it about turn of the century photographs that means we always love them? Three exhibitions revisit the collection of Valentí Fargnoli, he son of Italians settled in Girona who left valuable ethnographic work and heritage photography.
Twinkles and surprises
The world of art galleries is picking up, but more than that it is experiencing profound change. Not only are new galleries opening, but there are changes in the format, the business model, the planning and also the audiences.
The Invisible Magic of Quantum Physics
The ambitious exhibition “Quantum” which is showing at the CCCB attempts to explain the theory of quantum physics, including a dialogue between science and art.
Overflowing cities: too much mass tourism in Barcelona?
Who hasn’t flown to another European city on a budget flight and then stayed in an AirBnB? Who has never done “acritical tourism” or “place consumption” for a couple of days? It is not easy to raise the debate about the excess of tourism without falling into contradictions.
First Scan of an Illegal Abortion
Laia Abril has made the problem of illegal abortion universal and contemporary through her artistic project “On Abortion”, which is currently being shown at the Foto Colectania Foundation in Barcelona.
Damià Campeny in Mataró
“Reflextions. The Work of Damià Campeny”, at Ca l’Arenas of Mataró, is a show that emphasises the artist’s working method and his context.
10 Instructions for Bidding at Auction
Do you think buying art at an auction is easy? Well, you are wrong. Artur Ramon, who is an expert in the field, gives you ten basic tips to, at least, not make a fool of yourself in an auction.
Max Beckmann: paradise lost and the strangeness of exile
Max Beckmann’s lost paradise was not a Utopia, but a certain desirable and possible harmony, one that was destroyed by imperialist urges.
The Emotional Geography of Miró
Mas Miró in Mont-roig del Camp completes the “Miró triangle” – a kind of emotional cartography of the artist.
Mutant Scenes at La Capella
La Capella is celebrating its 25th anniversary as a space for the promotion of emerging art. And it is doing so in episodes. Here we have the fourth.
10 Recommended Art Books
Essays, anthologies, guides, anecdotes, graphic novels…2019 has a host of bibliographic novelties on the topic of art. And the day of Sant Jordi is the perfect excuse to buy one (or more) of them. Here are our recommendations.
Three Art Books for a Desert Island (and 2)
In anticipation of the Day of the book for Sant Jordi, we asked our “Mirador de les Arts” contributors which three art books they would take with them on a desert island. Their answers are surprising.
Three Art Books for a Desert Island (1)
In anticipation of the Day of the book for Sant Jordi, we asked our “Mirador de les Arts” contributors which three books they would take with them on a desert island. Their answers are surprising.
Mechanism of Detachment
“Absències”, a small retrospective of work by Ramon Guillen-Balmes is on show at the Busquets Space of the Massana School of Art and Design.
Van Gogh: stuck half way
The exhibition “Meet Van Gogh” is marketed as an immersive experience – and it is not.
The (double) Secret of Víctor Silva
A mysterious artist named Víctor Silva is exhibiting a series of small format painting at the Víctor Saavedra gallery, accompanied by their photographic reproductions in monumental proportions. Why?
Shall We Go on a Gallery Crawl?
When was the last time you stepped inside an art gallery? Can you name, from memory, the names of three art galleries in your town or city? Don’t worry, there is still time to retake the test.
CaboSanRoque take their interpretation of Joan Brossa around Catalonia
CaboSanRoque is always on the move. Their sound installation No em va fer Joan Brossa, which explores some of the poets least known work from the approach of sound, continues its tour.
Sweetly soft…
…comfortable, resistent, easy to wash. This is how , in the seventies, the new textile fabrics from the Mataró manufacturers were advertised. Mataró was a city specialising in the new textile modes and today exhibits its industrial heritage in the old Can Marfà factory.
Jordi Baron and snatches of time
Jordi Baron Rubí is an antiques dealer (third generation), collector of antique photos, and fine-art photographer. Each one of these facets feeds in to the other two.
The Erratic Life of Art and Culture in Public Education
In a society where the vast majority of creators are involved in activities of mediation or education, the lack of weight that humanistic and art subjects carry in regulated education is surprising.
Uri Geller and Salvador Dalí: a paranormal friendship
Not many people know that Uri Geller and Salvador Dalí met in Barcelona and kept in touch for quite some time. One painted the first bent spoon and the other bent spoons using the powers of the mind. Paranormal surrealism?
Miralda unfurls his Lay Lamb of God again at the MNAC
Almost twenty-five years on, and Miralda is returning to Oval Room of the National Art Museum of Catalonia with his giant tapestry.
Gabriel Cualladó is ours
As often happens with good books and films, the exhibition by Gabriel Cualladó at the Catalunya La Pedrera Foundation stays with you for some time after your visit.
Berenice Abbott: Absolutely Modern
A wide-ranging retrospective at the Fundación Mapfre’s Barcelona gallery highlights the North American photographer’s commitment to freedom, modernity and creativity.
Xavier Vendrell: singular double cronopio
Xavier Vendrell in a Baudelairian chercheur who does not wander around the Paris Spleen but around the Encants flea market in Barcelona.
What to do about Brother Josep Maria de Vera?
Only very recently we have discovered the name of a now deceased Capuchin monk who was based in Barcelona and formed part of the considerable list of clerics recently accused of sexual crimes with children.
Sex, books and the lumpen
What connects gimp masks and an abandoned library? The Pink Panther and a blow-up doll? All is revealed in Evaristo Benítez’s exhibition “Décalage”, at Galeria Contrast.
Design is not Culture: or at least that is what they say
During these last few days we have discovered who the National Culture Awards 2019 will go to. Congratulations to all the prize-winners. And no, this year once again not a single designer among them.
AIDS Anarchive, documents that fill gaps
Intersexuals, radicalised people, homosexuals, guerrillas, HIV victims. We can say that thanks to the exhibit “AIDS Anarchive”, organised by the Documentation Centre of the MACBA, the museum is we are filling the gap.
Emotional Microvisits
The so-called microvisits to the “Poetics of Emotion” exhibition, which are offered by the CaixaForum every weekend, without the need for reservation and at no additional cost, are a simple and easy way to get closer to contemporary art.
The 1976 Venice Biennale as a Symptom
The cultural control of the Spanish and Catalan Communist parties took the baton from the window-dressing politics of Francoism. In the midst of the transition to democracy, the 1976 Venice Biennale bore clear witness to this.
Louise Bourgeois: a lesson in survival and freedom
Survival and vulnerability but also courage and freedom. This is the message that all Louise Bourgeois’ work exudes and for me she is one of the best artists of the twentieth century, out of both men and women.
I have been, I am and I will always be a Surrealist
That is how Juan Batlle Planas defines himself in an interview in the newspaper Clarín in 1965, just a couple of years before his death. In the Art Museum of Girona you can see the first exhibition of this artist – Argentinean but with his origins in the Empordà.
Political art. A Tricky balance
A few years ago I was able to visit the Proa Foundation in Buenos Aires. Ai Weiwei was exhibiting. The exhibit was called “Inoculación” and consisted of a large number of political works presented as a project of public and social intervention, as dissident art.
The cultivation of irrelevance or the sweet comfort of mediocrity
I’m in the grip of a simian rage, and I hope this is obvious from the tone in which this article is written.
Roi Soleil: the limits of power
The eye of the camera has no compassion: regardless of whether you put in front of it. In the case of “Roi Soleil” Albert Serra once again opts for the agonising body of Louis XIV, embodied by another mythical body –that of Lluís Serrat, alias Sanxini, who he has used in almost all of his projects.
Digital Invasion of the Museums
Gamification is just one way of applying new digital technology to the museum and heritage sector.
The Only Difference Between a Madman and Me…
The figure of Joan Obiols Vié (Granollers, 1918 – Cadaqués, 1980) is multifaceted. This recognised psychiatrist and academic, art collector and cultural activist in times of Francoist restrictions… has not had a complete exhibition dedicated to him until now.
Barcelona is falling. Fall and carry on…
Most of these last four decades of democracy have been spent creating a fake culture, using as a marketing ploy a country which urgently needed to demonstrate that it could hit the spot in terms of European culture.
Ignasi de Solà-Morales. Resistant Violence
“In fact, any architectural operation is an imposition, a colonisation which involves violence”. An exhibition at La Virreina reviews the intellectual and critical legacy of the architect Ignasi de Solà-Morales. You won’t be left feeling indifferent.
Sense and Sensibility at the CaixaForum
This interesting study, in exhibition format, addresses emotion though western art. Do we feel the same now as we did five hundred years ago? Is art able to lie and be sincere at the same time?
Estrany-de la Mota, a deconstructed epilogue
Estrany-de la Mota has announced that it will close its doors as a commercial gallery.
Roma: the splendid film by Alfonso Cuarón
I think it is unusual, exceptional even, for a movie to approach the wisdom of life through the wisdom of film in the way that “Roma”, by Alfonso Cuarón has.
ARCOmadrid. The artists, the doll and his “subjects”
The 16 Catalan galleries represented at ARCOmadrid, the biggest contemporary art fair in Spain, present their proposals: they are not surprising but they are convincing.
L’H. The centre is on the outskirts
L’Hospitalet is well on the way to becoming one of the nerve centres of Catalan art, but what is the attraction for gallery owners and creators?
My Gothic Granny
The girl strangles the boy with her bare hands and stares into the camera. Her murderous eyes penetrate right through the photographer as her victim’s tongue hangs out of the side of his mouth. All framed by the darkness and shadows of the forest.
Bermejo, the Gestapo and the Crown of Aragon
Bartolomé Bermejo left an Andalusia that had been conquered by the Castilian troops, to travel to Aragon, where it would seem that the ills blown by the winds were not so bad.
Je ne veux pas travailler
A group exhibition on time brings together philosophy and contemporary art at Can Felipa. With nine artists and a Heideggerian title that says “Waste time and buy a watch to do so!”
Our Artistic Relationship with Technology
“Our simple relationship with technology” is the exhibition organised by Mobile Week Barcelona 2019 as the star event in its parallel cultural programme. This exhibit is a reflection on the digital transformation of our society through 14 works by international artists.
Infinite Arts in L’Hospitalet
La Infinita, in L’Hospitalet, is a new space of multidisciplinary creation and is the brainchild of Jordi Colomer and his partner, the producer Carolina Olivares.
Paintings with Titleplates
Many of the old paintings hanging in city apartments have a small gold titleplates with the name of the painter – usually one of the Grand Masters: Murillo, Ribera, Velázquez, Zurbarán.
The Motor Car in Catalan Art
As a result of the age of its own invention, the motor car cannot have been a theme in art much before the turn of the twentieth century.
Lina Bo Bardi draws the future of the Miró Foundation
The Miró Foundation presents an exhibition of drawing by the Italian-Brazilian Lina Bo Bardi, one of the most important architects of the twentieth century, following the storm which has blown up over the dismissals and the losses of the institution.
The Final Edit of Isaki Lacuesta
“I have been making video installations for some time. They allow me to continue making films in different ways. Because in cinema films there are some things that cannot be done. Either because of the format, or the context, or the audiences, which have become very conservative.”
Kitsch Aesthetic as a Means of Protest
The AES+F group doesn’t care whether they are labelled as frivolous or kitsch. Their aesthetic is generally considered to be on the verge of bad taste.
Venus and Adonis by Estudi Giró
One of the most famous paintings by Titian is “Venus and Adonis”, and it enjoyed so much success at the time that many replicas were made of it, with minimal variations. In the work, the artist does not focus on the myth portrayed by Ovid, but is a free version and one which, to this day, we cannot be sure whether it is of his own invention.
Barcelona is a Computer Game
When Barcelona had no share in the computer games industry, it suddenly often appeared as the setting for one. Now that it has become the unarguable capital of said industry, the computer games no longer appear. Does anyone know what is going on?
The World of Casas
The painter Ramon Casas was the great columnist for one of the most brilliant and convulsive periods of the history of Catalonia. The Gothsland Gallery has put on a magnificent exhibition of his work, which accompanies the presentation of the first volume of the Complete Catalogue of the artist.
Incombustible Guinovart
The density of techniques, materials and content which can come together in a single work of Josep Guinovart is almost infinite.
The Mini-landscape of Terra-lab.cat
Jordi Mitjà, Jon Uriarte and Ingrid Guardiola have taken the fourth episode from Terra-lab.cat –the visual laboratory of the region– to the Museum of the Empordà in Figueres and the Museum of Exile in La Jonquera.
Angoulême, the capital of comic
In this world there is a city almost as unreal as The Invisible Cities as described by Italo Calvino. This city is called Angoulême and the streets are Rue Hergé and Rue Goscinny.
Saliva, Sweat and Blood at the SÂLMON Festival
The SÂLMON Festival, which is in its seventh year with an extended programme, is always a stimulating event for measuring the pulse of new tendencies in dance, performance arts and contemporary live art.
Silver Anniversary in Episodes at a La Capella
The walls of the chapel of the Ancient Hospital of Barcelona, La Capella, are oozing with history. Health history, religious history and artistic history.
Dalí and his Father. A conflict in three phases
More unpublished declarations of Anna Maria Dalí about the prolonged conflict that the artist had with his father.
When Dalí made up with his Father
An excerpt from the unpublished diaries of Rafael Santos Torroella reveals, through Anna Maria Dalí, what Salvador Dalí’s reconciliation with his father was like, having been expelled by the family for his relationship with Gala and the surrealist ‘sect’.
Mercy for the MACBA
To the now classic dilemma of “who do you like best, Mummy or Daddy?” the people of Barcelona have added “which do you prefer, culture or health?”.
Three Impertinent Young Girls
Now that the Facebook robot censors have put into practice the implacable and efficient, white and starched, orders of Silicon Valley puritanism, it brings to mind an interesting and strange controversy which took place in Barcelona at the height of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship.
The Difference between “sink” and “lift”
Austrian artist Oliver Ressler presents his first solo exhibition at the gallery àngels barcelona.
The Purge of the Foundations
The artistic and hereditary fabric of Catalonia is extensive…and thinly spread, too thinly spread. Are the recent staff dismissals at the Joan Miró Foundation and the “strategic change” at the Antoni Tàpies Foundation, warnings of future suspensions?
The Paradise Lost (or not) of Domènec
After the exhibition last year at the Macba “Not here or anywhere”, Domènec returns to show the tensions between utopia and reality in modern architecture.
Velázquez, the Gold of the Indies and the Captains Alatriste
Philip IV of Spain contracted Diego de Velázquez when the painter was twenty-four years old. He had just arrived in a Madrid that was at the height of Gold Fever.
An Explosive Dalí
Dalí rocks! He invented soft watches, the paranoiac-critic method, the museum as a theatre of experience and, even after his death, the exhibition in two acts.
The Lost Caravaggio
All antiquarians who dedicate out noble profession to antique paintings have dreamed of finding a Caravaggio.
Joaquim Chancho, the vibration of black and white
At a time when it is so difficult to see good painting exhibitions in our country, the exhibition by Chancho at Ana Mas Projects is a breath of fresh air.
Sergio Mora: expanded drawing and international success
Sergio Mora is able to express himself with as much freshness in a painting exhibition, an illustrated book either for adults or for all readers, a bizarre comic, an album cover or a subjective and non-neutral design for fashion or interiors. The book “Moraland” brings together a collection of his work.
What is going on in the Miró Foundation?
This institution, one of the most prestigious in Barcelona, has presented its programme for 2019. And I have to say it has been something of a surprise…
The City Will Not Make Us Free
The Umbral project in the Barcelona metro: thirteen suburban artistic works on migration and its political, social and symbolic contradictions.
Commissioned Portraits (2)
As the twentieth century progressed, the portrait became increasingly sidelined when not directly condemned.
Commissioned Portraits (1)
Recently there has been some controversy about the portrait of the King of Spain by the portrait painter Hernán Cortés Moreno, specialist in this type of work.
Surcharges in Olot
Political art has a very bad press, when what should really have a bad name is art which says nothing.
Game over. Insert coin
“Sobrecàrregues” is an initiative of the Assembly of Artists of La Garrotxa. Every month the Assembly invites an artist to hand on the façade of Olot Town Hall a life-sized interpretation of “The Charge” (1902) – the best-known work by Ramon Casas.
Eulogy to the subtlest of Guinovart
A decade after his decease, it is clearer than ever that the highly prolific work of Guinovart need to be reviewed.
Rembrandt van Rijn: florins, tulips and hockey
The Cultural Centre of Terrassa hosts a sober and well-selected show of engravings by Rembrandt from the Furió collection.
The Whole of Tharrats
An exhibition at the Fundació Tharrats d’Art Gràfic commemorates the centenary of the birth of this artist from Girona and explores his multiple creative sides.
Tintin on the Moon
CosmoCaixa invites us to an exhibition that links Hergé’s comic “Mission to the Moon” (1950) with the Apollo 11 mission (1969).
Colonizing New Art Spaces
Jordi Abelló’s research to find new formats and places to share his pictorial and audiovisual creation leaves no stone unturned.
Pocket Art Connoisseur, the best art app in 2018
Having the Pocket Art Connoisseur is like keeping the most rigorous art critic in your pocket.
With rebellion, awareness is born… and so is suspicion
The Mayoral Gallery exhibits a joint show of the best pieces of Spanish Informalism.
The MNAC: flexibility or bust
The MNAC has just opened two new halls dedicated to Catalan art from 1940 to 1980.
Lorenza Böttner. An Extremely Delicate Art
In the work of this Chilean-born German artist it does not occur to us that she has no arms or whether she is a man, a woman or a transgender person.
The Gatecrashed Memory of Concha Martínez Barreto
Concha Martínez Barreto is interested in showing the mechanisms of the construction of memory.
The Invisible Collection
I receive a strange telephone call from a woman who, by the sound of her soft voice, seems young. She tells me that her father has an important collection of drawings and invites me to see them Argentona.
DelicARTessen or the Diversity of Non-Institutional Art
DelicARTessen is a great occasion for those who want to see a significant part of current art being made in Barcelona.
Alicja Kwade: exploring space and time
At a moment in humanity when time has never been so difficult to find and keep, Polish artist Alicja Kwade (1979) invites us to pass through, listen to and observe space-time.
Between the River Onyar and the River Ripoll, Mela and Antoni
Among all the foreign artists that art dealer Josep Dalmau exhibited, Mela Muter (Warsaw, 1876 – Paris, 1967) was the one that had the biggest impact in Catalonia.
Charlotte Salomon, the Curative Nature of Art
The work of Charlotte Salomon contains the legend of this woman artist discovered long after her death.
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, the Megalodemocrat
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer has launched in Barcelona, “Megalodemocrat”, the documentary following the last decade of his extraordinary career.
Bernardo Bertolucci and the Last Tango in Paris
The ghost of the butter scene haunts Bertolucci even in death.
Mela Muter, finally!
An exhibition in the Art Museum of Girona brings us the visual and written work of this Polish artist who made her mark on Girona at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Dalí under the genius of Raphael
Raphael’s “Madonna of the Rose” leaves the Prado Museum to visit the Teatre-Museu Dalí, and make the dream of the genius from the Empordà come true.
Change Needed at the Academy
An analysis of the convulsive events which have changed the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Sant Jordi.
The Most Christmassy Tradition of Barcelona
If there was ever a Christmas tradition that attracted more followers than the others, at least in the city of Barcelona, it would be to criticise the nativity scene in the Plaça Sant Jaume.
The face as a flag
Foto Colectania proposes the topic of identity through photography, delving into the extraordinary Walther Collection.
Picasso and Sabartés, forever friends
Jaume Sabartés, at certain times proved to be a solid part of Picasso’s daily life.
Berga i Boada: sex and violence
Josep Berga i Boada is revealed as one of the most interesting Catalan creators of the turn of the twentieth century.
Picasso and Picabia: forced parallels
“Picasso – Picabia. Painting in question” is one of the best artistic exhibits this year.
The voice of the weakest
Beyond violence, war and politics, there are people who suffer, lives destroyed and incurable traumas. Turkish artist Erkan Özgen give a voice to these silenced stories.
Liberxina, the fuel of creative freedom
In Catalonia, at the height of Francoism, one group of artists was in a hurry to turn the rules upside down and work across disciplines.
Vindications of Ismael Smith
In 1951 Isaac, Ana Maria, Ismael and Paco Smith Marí packed up the contents of their luxury mansion in Irvington, on the banks of the Hudson, and a favourite place of residence for the most accomplished New Yorkers.
Lee Miller: “I would rather take a photo than be one”
Lee Miller was no “femme fatale”, she was a “femme différente”.
The Hunter Hunted
That a hunter would wish to hunt another is an impossible mission. Second installment of the series “Stories of Antiquarians and Fame”.
Miralda: “When you are an artist, you have to give things away”
Interview with Antoni Miralda, winner of the Velázquez prize in 2018 for his new exhibition with the Senda Gallery.
The movements of art in movement
The unmissable proposals of the Loop Festival 2018.
The Knight’s Home
An alternative reading of the exhibition “The Splendour of Catalan Castles” at the Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia.
Bibliophilia and Process
Last Thursday in Barcelona there was an extraordinary auction of antiquarian books and manuscripts. The organisers Soler y Llach, are a reference in this kind of sale. Most of the lots were sold.
The Genius and Figure of Manuel Duque
From time to time the Vila Casas Foundation has little great successes despite the fact that they often become fogged by an excess of eclecticism and exhibitional hyperactivity.
The Timelessness of Frederic Amat
It is very difficult to resist the charm of the cabinets of curiosities.
The Movies According to Stanley Kubrick
The first characteristic to define Stanley Kubrick and his movies is his extremely high and exceptional ambition.
Eppur si muove!
It is not easy to gain access to kinetic art from the world of screens and digital media. Accustomed to the paradigm of constant and liquid movement, kinetic art pieces and their commitment to the study of movement have something of an old-fashioned method, a mechanical process and a touch of magic. It is almost as if we are talking of another age.
Lee Miller, a Genius in the Net of British Surrealism
If there was ever an exhibition that we could say “has many different readings”, without falling into either clichés or exaggeration, it has to be “Lee Miller and Surrealism in Britain”, which is currently on at the Miró Foundation in Barcelona.
Picasso Blue and Pink, in Paris
If Pablo Picasso had died in 1904, before moving permanently to France, he would still be in all the history of art textbooks in the world. The proof is the exhibition Picasso bleu & rose, at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
Treasures on paper
Just as Jep Gambardella, the star of La grande bellezza, loved the smell of old houses, there are people that area fascinated by auctions of old books and manuscripts.
Toulouse-Lautrec and New Technology
An exhibition has just opened at the CaixaForum Barcelona with a misleading title, but one which is nonetheless worth seeing. If only to be the witnesses to one of the most important revolution in cultural history.
MACBA. 34th Time Lucky?
Since the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) finally opened its doors to the public in November 1995, there have been 34 presentations of its collection.
Stories of Antiquarians and Fame: a brief autopsy
“An antiquarian is a hunter of art works, somebody who seeks or chases pieces obsessively until they are bagged.” In this space, every month antiquarian Artur Ramon will give us a taste of his most impassioned professional experiences. #nofilters.
macaparana-barcelona or ethereal sensuality
Brazilian artist José de Souza Oliveira Filho, better known as Macaparana, exhibits for the first time in our country. A distinguished artist whose work makes constant refences to the “Paulista” geometry of São Paulo: a reference to the geometrical abstraction of the Russian constructivists.
Uncertainty, flickering… and a Dramamine to boot
Dalí grumbled in front of a work by Alexander Calder: “if there is one thing you can ask of a sculpture, it is that it shouldn’t move”.
Brushstrokes of the Opera
Two exhibitions celebrate the new opera season at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.
Art for After the Shipwreck
Vicenç Viaplana exhibits a visual symphony at the Galería Marc Domènech with indirect allusions to the economic disaster of 2008.
“Vitriol” versus “Tàpies protector”
A work rescued from the past, a sarcastic portrait of Antoni Tàpies, opens up the stark debate between formalism and realism, between ethics and the desire for the powers of art.
The Photographic Revolution of the “Fifth Generation”
An exhibition at the Virreina which takes us through the aesthetic revolution of Catalan photography in the 1970s.
The Jewel and the Siege
A journey in time to two besieged cities, with a common theme: jewellery.
Driving Miss Dalí
Blai Matons (Barcelona, 1934) worked as a chauffeur. From 1969 to 1977 he drove Salvador Dalí and his wife Gala in his Class E Mercedes.
The Resurrection of Gustau Violet
Three recent initiatives have revived interest in the work of the Rousillon sculptor Gustau Violet.
Gala Dalí, Valls and a Madeleine from Kazan
The city of Valls made a gift of its emblematic eagle to Gala Dalí. Why? Well, the clue is that in the world of Dalí, nothing is as it seems…