Memory and Avant-garde

Joan Miró (1893-1983) is considered to be one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. His unique and original style, marked by simple shapes, primary colours and experimentation with new materials, has turned him into a benchmark for many creators.

When he was just 14 years old, he started to study commerce as per the instructions of his father, who at the same time accepted having him enrolled in night classes in drawing at the La Llotja in Barcelona “as a pastime”. It was in 1911, during his stay at Mont-Roig del Camp recovering from an illness, when he firmly decided to become a painter. Neither his international fame, nor his stays in Paris, New York or Japan would alienate him ever from the countryside of the Baix Camp, the key to his artistic calling and a source of inspiration, nor from his Catalan roots.

After his first artistic stage with fauvist, expressionist and cubist influences (Retrat de nena, 1919; La masia, 1920), his stay in Paris would bring him into contact with surrealism and dadaism, and his painting would evolve and be realised from conventionalism and academicism. In his particular surrealist vision, Miró was inspired by the irrational and transformed objects and people into symbols and shapes that mixed the geometric with the organic. El carnaval d’Arlequí (1924) and El gos bordant a la lluna (1926) are very significant works.

The start of international recognition of his work, with the purchase of parts for part of the MoMA in New York in 1928, coincided with his most rebellious stage, marked by his desire to “kill” the classic idea of painting. For this entire life, he would experiment with new techniques and expressions such as collages, engravings, ceramics, tapestry, sculpture, scenography, swinging constantly between figuration and abstraction. Starting in the 60’s, we would invent a new language, where his characteristic mythology (woman, bird, star, moon and sun) would take on a very explicit meaning (L'or de l'atzur, 1967).

He fled from the public eye, often taking refuge in his study in Palma. This did not prevent Miró from expressing his rage and sensitivity for big events in his time (the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War) through his work: Natura morta del sabatot (1937) or his series Constel·lacions (1939-1941). And even his years of international recognition, with retrospectives in the most prestigious museums, did not hinder his fighting spirit. Examples include the fabrics that he burned and put holes into in 1973 in protest against the repression of Franco.

One of the best collections of the artist’s work can be found in the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, which opened its doors in 1975. There are also important collections of his in the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró in Palma de Mallorca, at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, in the MoMA and Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Tate Modern Museum in London and the Moderna Museet Museum in Stockholm, among others.
 

The visit to the Girona City History Museum starts with a look at the building itself. It is a Gothic mansion (15th century) owned by the Cartellà family, which became the Capuchin convent of Sant Antoni in the 18th century. The cemetery, the cistern and the cloister have been preserved from this time. At the end of the 19th century it was converted into a school and finally, in 1981, it was transformed into a museum. In addition, it houses the remains of the wall of the ancient Gerunda and part of the enclosure of the medieval Cal or Jewish quarter.

In all, a journey through the history of Girona which already indicates what the visitor will find on display inside: a chronological journey through the Roman, medieval, modern and contemporary Girona that is completed with a look at various Catalan traditions such as the cobla and the sardana.

Among the most notable exhibits are: the fragment of the pavement mosaic of Can Pau Birol, from 300 AD; the bronze sculpture of the Angel from the Cathedral of Girona, made in 1764 by Ramon Salvatella; modernista and noucentista works by the sculptors, Fidel Aguilar and Ricard Guinó; and posters of political events from the Transition to Democracy in Girona, among other items.

The Museum also manages the air-raid shelter of the Jardí de la Infància, from the Civil War, and the modernista branch of the Agència Gómez.

One of the consequences of the French Revolution was the birth of nationalism throughout Europe. Catalonia did not remain on the sidelines and, in the mid-19th century, the Renaixença began, a cultural movement whose aim was to make Catalan a language of literature and culture and, at the same time, to exalt the history of Catalonia and the idea of patriotism.

Within this context, the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya (Hiking Centre of Catalonia) was formed in 1890 in Barcelona. The founding objective was "to promote excursions around our region in order to make it better known and appreciated, and also to publish papers resulting from these excursions, creating a library and archive". And what better way, in the late 19th century, of documenting these outings than through photography.

The Centre Excursionista collected such a large amount of material that a Photographic Archive had to be created, situated on Carrer Paradís in Barcelona. Currently, it has more than 100 collections (400,000 images) from private donations and bequests. The themes are varied: in addition to landscapes of Catalonia and mountain activities, there are photographs of archaeology, caving, water sports, cycling, boxing, etc. The whole archive is an important historical legacy of Catalonia of the 19th and 20th centuries.

At the same time, the Archive also shows the technical evolution of photography. There are collodion glass plates from the 1860s, silver bromide gelatin plates from the late 19th century, nitrates, stereoscopic plates and autochromes. Also preserved is historical photographic equipment such as cameras, tripods, laboratory instruments and light meters.

Joan Brossa (1919-1998) was a restless artist, one who was interested in various artistic disciplines. While it is true that he was a poet, he was not limited to the classical forms and worked with visual poems, object poems and urban poems. In addition, this hard-to-catalogue, avant-garde artist worked in a multitude of disciplines: music, theatre, film, and even magic. However, he remained virtually unknown until 1970, when he published Poesia rasa.

The opening salvo of his career came in 1948, when he participated in the founding of the legendary Dau al Set magazine, a publication that involved Surrealism being fully adopted into the artistic and literary terrain. The book Romanços del dragolí (1948) comes from this period, a work which embodied his irony and humour. He also began to write for the stage along Dadaist lines, as well as two screenplays and even a ballet.

In the 1950s, Brossa's poetry increasingly reflected the social issues, political reportage and Marxist theory. The results of this change in direction were the publications Em va fer Joan Brossa (1950), Catalunya i selva (1953) and the ten books of sapphic odes. His theatre was equally committed, with popular forms such as the 'quadre de costumes' (sketches of manners): Cortina de muralles and Or i sal are examples of these.

From the 1960s, the visual became increasingly important in the work of Brossa. The poet manipulated objects to represent the concept (visual poems). And thus, collaboration with visual artists became inevitable. He worked with Antoni Tàpies and Joan Miró. However, Brossa never stopped writing poetry. His Els entra-i-surts del poeta. Roda de llibres (1969-75), short and playful poems, are from this period.

It was after the death of Franco that the popularity of the artist grew unceasingly: awards and honours, a retrospective exhibition at the Joan Miró Foundation and wide international exposure. His work began to have a physical presence in Barcelona, with some visual poems made concrete, such as Barcino (1991-1994), in front of the Cathedral of Barcelona, and also with the opening of the Brossa Espai Escènic creation space.

The artist always tried to ensure that his lyricism remained grounded. Frankness, irony and even sarcasm were some of the tools he used to achieve this. After his death his legacy passed to the Joan Brossa Foundation, the custody of which was given over to MACBA (Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art).

Since 2004, the Masia de Can Serra in Sant Adrià de Besòs has housed the History of Immigration in Catalonia Museum (Museu d'història de la immigració de Catalunya - MhiC) which acts as a centre for research and dissemination of the memory of migration in Catalonia. In doing so, the Museum offers a permanent exhibition divided into three areas using modern, interactive and educational museum resources.

The Humans in Movement area shows the historical trends in human movement from prehistoric times until the 20th century. The visit continues inside an old railway carriage from the mid-20th century: the Sevillano. This space pays tribute to the generation of internal migrations to Catalonia in the 20th century. It also includes testimonies and memories of those who were passengers. The last area presents migrations of the 21st century, which take place in a globalised world in continuous transformation.

The MhiC also has a documentation and resource centre. Forming part of the collection are the oral memory questionnaires that those who have taken part in the migratory processes can fill out.

From the 1960s, the Diputació (Provincial Council) of Tarragona had been acquiring a significant artistic collection which was not open for public viewing. So, in 1976, they created the Museum of Modern Art, whose purpose was to promote the study and knowledge of the modern and contemporary art and, at the same time, to preserve and display these collections.

The original location chosen was Casa Martí, an 18th century stately home located in the upper part of Tarragona. In 2008, the museum renewed its permanent exhibition and opened a new, more modern and educational museum project.

The museum devotes some rooms to the Taller - Escola de Pintura i Escultura (Workshop - School of Painting and Sculpture) which the Republican Government built in Tarragona and the subsequent Escola Taller d’Art de la Diputació de Tarragona (Workshop and School of Art of the Provincial Council of Tarragona). Also exhibited are works by contemporary artists of the 1980s from the region, such as Bruno Gallart or James Solé.

One of the most important collections of the museum is the legacy left by the sculptor Julio Antonio. In the permanent exhibition, you can see various facets of his work, placing emphasis on the Monument als Herois de 1811 (Monument to the Heroes of 1811), located on the Rambla Nova in Tarragona. Other representatives of the transition from the 19th century to the 20th century, such as Joseph Tapiró, are also on display.

However, the most renowned work in the Museum of Modern Art in Tarragona bears the signature of Joan Miró. This is the Tapís de Tarragona (Tapestry of Tarragona), a large-scale project that the painter made together with Josep Royo. In 1970, Miró gave this tapestry to the Hospital de la Cruz Roja in Tarragona, then directed by Rafael Orozco, in thanks for the care this doctor gave to his daughter. When the institution was closed down, the work was given over to the Museum where it occupies a place of honour.

Joan Brossa, poet, playwright and visual artist, was above all a lover of art in all its forms. He experimented with different genres and, throughout his life, accumulated lots of related documentation. Such were the mountains of papers and different materials accumulated in his first studio in Carrer Balmes that he had to rent a second studio to continue storing his "little treasures".

In 1999, a year after the death of the artist and following his wishes, the Fundació Joan Brossa (Joan Brossa Foundation) was created to safeguard his documentary legacy and to make it as widely known as possible, placing an emphasis on its interdisciplinary character. The Foundation promotes the research, editing, reissue, translation, representation, and exhibitions of the work of Brossa.

Among the Foundation's assets there is the library of Joan Brossa, made up of about 6,000 books, numerous magazines and exhibition catalogues. These are in addition to the personal archive of the poet, composed of about 52,000 documents of various types such as manuscripts of his artistic and literary work, facsimiles, galley proofs, correspondence, posters, press clippings, photographs, etc. Joan Brossa's art collection also belongs to the Foundation, among which there are his own works, as well as works by artists such as Joan Miró and Antoni Tàpies.

In 2012, custody of the collection, the archive and the library was given over to MACBA (Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art) to ensure its conservation and allow it to be made more widely-known. Three years later, the headquarters of the Foundation was moved - which had been in La Seca Espai Brossa - to the first floor of the MACBA Study Centre.

The writer Josep Pla is one of the most important prose writers in Catalan literature of the 20th century. Despite his travels, he did not forget his native Palafrugell. For this reason, in 1973 he donated his library to a newly created organisation, the Josep Pla Library Private Foundation, linked to the municipality. Since 1995, this literary heritage is to be found in the house of the writer’s birth, the current headquarters of the Fundació Josep Pla (Josep Pla Foundation).

At 49, Carrer Nou de Palafrugell, where the journalist spent his early childhood, you can immerse yourself in the life and work of the author of El Carrer Estret. In addition to being the custodian of his personal library, the Foundation has a bibliographical collection specialising in Josep Pla which is continually updated. This is complemented by the material of the Documentation Centre, which includes the author's manuscripts and personal documentation, articles from the newspaper library, a collection of images and videos and an art collection.

Since 2000, a permanent exhibition about Josep Pla (1897-1981) has been on display at the house of his birth, a survey of the personal and professional journey of the writer framed within the historical context of the 20th century. It ends with a room that illustrates the process of creating El Quadern Gris, Pla’s masterpiece, from his first notes in the original manuscript to the first edition of the text.

It was in 1951, and the industrial engineer Eustaquio Ugalde Urosa had just bought a plot of woodland right next to the sea at Caldes d'Estrac. Sitting under a carob tree and enjoying the views, he decided to build a house in this idyllic spot that would allow him to keep the landscape as it was. He commissioned his friend Josep Antoni Coderch for the project, who designed a two-storey house and garden made up of a set of volumes that perfectly met the original brief: they are perfectly integrated with the natural environment.

The views over the sea and the landscape of the site determined the building’s construction. It sought a space for itself in the middle of the forest, where it rises discreetly, respecting the environment. Local materials were also chosen, those typical of Mediterranean popular architecture such as the stone walls, the concrete slabs, floors with red terracotta tiles, wooden roofs or with tiled vaults.

The use of Catalan construction traditions is combined with more modern architectural forms. Thus, Casa Ugalde is an irregular building, open-plan and free-flowing, both on the plan and the elevation which fosters the fluid communication between the interior and the exterior. While inside all the walls are straight, the outside is dominated by a curved wall that separates the house from the wood. Within the whole complex, the terraces play a major part. The spaces are open and well-lit, thanks to the light that enters the building from all sides and the white colour of the whole building.

Work on the house finished in 1952. Its external appearance has been maintained up to the present day, despite the reforms of successive owners.