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.
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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.