Plastic and visual arts

The movement of surrealism cannot be understood without the personal universe of Salvador Dalí (1904-1989). The painter from Figueres (Alt Empordà region) was a complete artist who also left his mark on multiple fields such as literature, sculpture, fashion, jewellery, decor and theatre. He even worked in cinema collaborating with Buñuel, Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock.

Famous due to his eccentric nature and his overwhelming, provocative personality which left nobody untouched, since he was young he was known for his talent in drawing, for his photographic perfectionism and his ground-breaking imagination. Struck since the age of 25 by his love for Gala, his muse, his work stands out for its dream-like character, and a mysterious and unsettling symbolism where soft watches, elephants with long legs, eggs, ants, snails and lobsters coexist.

His creative hyperactivity was reflected in more than 1,500 paintings. His work, with an undeniable quality and originality, arose from noucentisme (Noia a la finestra, 1925) and, after a period with Cubist influence, he adopted what he called paranoiac activity, which would give rise to his most known works: Cistell amb pa (1925), La sang és més dolça que la mel (1927), El gran masturbador (1929), El joc lúgubre (1929), Persistència de la memòria (Rellotges tous) (1931), Retrat de Gala (1931), El naixement dels desigs líquids (1932), Construcció tova amb mongetes bullides (1936), Autoretrat amb bacó fregit (1941), different variations on the subject of L’àngelus by Millet, etc.

His stay in Italy during the Spanish Civil War awoke in the artist a fascination for religious, historic and allegorical subjects: Temptació de sant Antoni (1947), Leda atòmica (1949), La Mare de Déu de Portlligat (1950), El Crist de sant Joan de la Creu (1950), Batalla de Tetuan (1962), etc. In this period, he experimented with visual games (Cignes reflectits en elefants (1937), Mercat d’esclaus amb l’aparició del bust de Voltaire (1940)), which were evolving towards stereoscopic paintings such as La cadira (1975).

After the death of Gala (1982), Dalí left his residence in Portlligat to live in Púbol, where he lived having retired from public life. He is one of the most well-known and admired artists in the world. A large part of his work can be found in the Gala Salvador Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres and the Reina Sofia Museum, and museums such as the MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York Nova York also hold his works. Since 2009, Berlin has had a permanent exhibit called Dalí - Die Ausstellung and in 2011 The Dalí Museum was inaugurated in Saint Petersburg (Florida).

The best example of abstract informalism and one of the most noteworthy Catalan artists of the 20th century is the Barcelona-native painter and sculptor Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012), who was above all else a man of culture. Drawn by philosophy, literature and music, he drove the foundation carrying his name to promote contemporary art and he was an active defender of Catalan culture.

The son of a bourgeois family linked to the publishing world, his artistic calling started when he was 11 years old when he saw an issue in the magazine D’ací i d’allà dedicated to modern and International art. Practically self-taught, the start of his career was marked by illness during which he sought refuge in drawing, painting, literature and music. Finally, when he was 22 years old, he left his career in Law to dedicate himself fully to painting.

In 1948, along with Joan Brossa, the philosopher Arnau Puig and the painters Joan Ponç, Modest Cuixart and Joan-Josep Tharrats, he founded the artistic group Dau al Set. During this period, his work was dominated by figurative surrealism, often with influences from Joan Miró and Paul Klee. The Capsa de cordills (1946) or the unusual Collage and Pintura exhibits in the Saló d’Octubre were proof that there was already a shift towards dream abstraction. Starting from here, experimentation is constant, especially in so-called “material painting”. He uses waste material for his works (ropes, paper, marble dust, straw, clothing), he intensifies his collages and his taste for plentiful material which, often, reaches authentic low reliefs.

His palette is austere: ochre, brown, grey, black (Gran pintura grisa, 1956). At the same time his creations have a strong iconographic nature with crosses, moons, asterisks, letters, numbers, geometric shapes, etc. (Pintura en forma de T, 1960). For the artist, influences by existential philosophy, these elements have an allegorical meaning, evoking themes like life and death, solitude, lack of communication or sexuality.

During the 70’s, he created his first sculptor pieces using the assembling technique. In the 80’s, the use of cay and bronze allowed him to develop more personal work. Of note is his Homenatge a Picasso (Ciutadella Park, 1983), and the ceramic mosaic in the Plaça de Catalunya square in Sant Boi de Llobregat (1983), as well as the Núvol i cadira installation (1989) and the controversial Mitjó (2010).

Antoni Tàpies is one of the most International Catalan artists. He has won the most prestigious prizes and recognitions and exhibits on his work have been seen around the world: Tokyo, New York, Rome, Madrid, Amsterdam, Venice, Milan, Vienna and Brussels. 

Protected by the most magical mountains in Catalonia, in an area created by the architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch, you can see one of the most important artistic and archaeological collections in Catalonia. The Montserrat Museum shows more than 1,300 pieces that have a long timeline: from an Egyptian sarcophagus from the 22nd century BC to a painting of Sean Scully from 2010. The permanent exhibit has big names in the history of art.

The archaeology section has its origins in the so-called Biblical Museum, created in the year 1911, by the monk Bonaventura Ubach, who in his trips to the Near East managed to gather archaeological materials of great importance. Currently you can see pieces from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Xyprus, Italy and the Hellenic World, the Low Empire and Paleo-Christian culture.

The collection of old paintings (13th and 18th centuries) consists in about 250 works, which were in large part acquired in the beginning of the 20th century. The museum exhibits a collection that includes artists such as Berruguete, El Greco, Jan Brueghel de Velours, Frans Francken and, in a special place, Caravaggio. Sant Jeroni Penitent is the only work by the Italian Baroque artist that can be seen in Catalonia.

The largest section of the museum is from the 19th and 20th century. It is worth it to focus on the collection of Catalan paintings, one of the best in the country, with pieces by Fortuny, Martí Alsina, Vayreda, Rusiñol, Nonell, Mir, Picasso, Torres-Garcia and Dalí, among others. Jove decadent. Després del ball, from Casas, awaits visitors stretched out on a comfortable green sofa. You can also see a small collection of paintings from great masters of French Impressionism (Degas, Sisley, Renoir, Monet, Pissarro), unique to Catalonia.

Unique too is the Nigra sum display, gathering artistic and traditional materials to explain the iconographic evolution of the image of the Montserrat Virgin. Or the exhibit of icons from the Slavic Byzantine churches Phos Hilaron (‘joyous light’).

Murals, painting on wood, sculpture, textiles, clothing, documentary collections, metalwork, objects for the liturgy, etc. The current collection of the Museu Diocesà d'Urgell (Diocesan Museum of Urgell) is a reference point of sacred art in which the Beatus de Liébana particularly stands out, one of only two copies in Catalonia of the work that the Abbot Beat, from the Monastery of Liébana, wrote at the end of the 8th century, commenting on the Book of Revelation.

Curiously, the Museum grew out of a temporary exhibition that took place in 1957 with the pieces from the Cathedral Treasury. Such was the success of the exhibition that it was made permanent and the collection was expanded with pieces from throughout the diocese in the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque styles and from the 19th century. Among these acquisitions there are treasures such as the Papal Bull of Pope Sylvester II.

In 1969, the Church of la Pietat (annexed to the Cathedral of Santa Maria de la Seu d'Urgell) was adapted to house the Museum. This space brought its own works to the collection such as the Pieta altarpiece and the Dormition group, made by the sculptor Jeroni Xanxo.

One of the most significant works of the collection is El retaule dels Goigs de la Verge (The Altarpiece of the Joys of the Virgin), from Abella de la Conca. It is by Pere Serra and dates from the 14th Century. In addition to its artistic value, it has a history of white-collar theft behind it. It was stolen in 1972 and, after a long journey, was recovered six years later in New York.

Frederic Marès, in addition to being a sculptor, developed a passion for collecting from a very early age. Over a period of more than 80 years, he assembled a large number of works of art (particularly sculpture) and more than 50,000 objects. In 1944, he gave his collections to the city of Barcelona which exhibited the collection two years later at the Museu Frederic Marès (Frederic Marès Museum), located in the former Royal Palace of the Counts of Barcelona.

In the basement and on the first two floors the collection of Hispanic sculpture from ancient times until the 19th century are concentrated . One of the jewels in the crown is L’aparició de Jesús als seus deixebles al mar (The Appearance of Jesus to his Disciples at the Sea), attributed to the Master of Cabestany, a masterpiece of the Catalan Romanesque which came from the monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes. Sculpture of the Spanish Renaissance and Baroque periods are also well represented. To a lesser extent, other artistic collections are on display (painting, metalwork, furniture and textiles).

Also displayed in the same building are the objects that Marès had collected: dolls, clocks, fans, pipes, playing cards, daguerreotypes, pharmacy jars, tin soldiers, etc. This area is known as the Gabinet del col·leccionista, or the Collector’s cabinet (Marès called it the Sentimental Museum). The visitor can take a tour through 17 rooms, in which the thousands of curious and endearing objects have been brought together which reflect the life and customs of the past, especially from the 19th century.

Finally, those who wish to delve more deeply into the figure of Frederic Marès can visit the study/library of the artist. This space has a set of sculptural works by Marès, which he himself chose to display to the public, as well as a number of personal items.

From archaeological finds from the Neolithic age and the Roman era, up to contemporary paintings, as well as Baroque carvings and modern paintings. The Museu Comarcal de Manresa (Manresa Regional Museum) is thematically multidisciplinary and the collections it has on display focus on the art and history of Manresa, Bages and Catalonia.

It began with a project in 1896, although it was at the end of the 70s that the museum took on the shape it has today. Located since 1940 in the old school of Sant Ignasi, the Museum is located within the area of influence of Ignatius of Loyola, near the Cova de Sant Ignasi (Cave of Saint Ignatius) and the Gothic church of Santa Maria (La Seu). The building is a large mansion built around a neoclassical courtyard.

During the tour, the visitor will find archaeological objects ranging from the Neolithic up to the Romanisation of the area, a collection of medieval pottery decorated in green and purple of the fourteenth century and Baroque polychrome carvings of the 17th and 18th centuries. In 2014, an area devoted to Antoni Viladomat i Manalt was opened, thanks to the loan of 12 works from MNAC (National Museum of Catalan Art).

It is worth stopping in the area of modern and contemporary art where you will find an important collection of dioramas and paintings by Josep Mestres Cabanes, a designer at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, and paintings and engravings by Alfred Figueras. A room is devoted to the artistic works of the Garriga-Mir Arts Foundation.

The Museum also has a multi-sensory module called "La Mirada Tàctil" (The Tactile Look), a tactile interpretation to make the visit as accessible as possible.

One of the most important collections of Catalan Romanesque art in Catalonia can be seen in the Museu Diocesà i Comarcal de Solsona (The Diocesan and Regional Museum of Solsona), located in the Episcopal Palace. As well as making a stop in the medieval period, visitors can take a trip back through time: from the prehistoric era to the modern age.

Most notable in the extensive Romanesque room are the architectural elements that come from the cloisters of the Cathedral of Santa Maria de Solsona: several capitals and an historiated column from the workshop of Master Gilabert de Tolosa.

Also outstanding is the exhibition of Virgin and Child paintings from the 12th and 13th centuries and major examples of pre-Romanesque and Romanesque wall painting from the complexes of Sant Quirze de Pedret and Sant Vicenç de Rus , the paintings on wooden panels from the side of the main altar of the Church of Sant Andreu de Sagàs, the Gothic pabel with the scene of the Last Supper of Santa Constance of Linyà and the altarpiece of Sant Jaume de Frontanyà.

The Diocesan Museum of Solsona was created in 1896 by Bishop Ramon Riu i Cabanes. The aim was the same as for those of the other ecclesiastical museums, such as the Episcopal Museum of Vic, founded 5 years earlier: to preserve the heritage of the diocese and to contribute to the national reconstruction launched by the Catalan Renaixença. All this wealth was endangered with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil war in 1936. For this reason, part of the collection was moved to Geneva and returned to Solsona after the war. The current Museum is the result of renovations carried out in the 1980s.

If anyone was able to put Georges Méliès in the shade, it would be Segundo de Chomón (1871-1929). He was one of the most important pioneers of the early years of cinema, particularly for his expertise with special effects. He was born in Teruel, although he divided his professional career between Barcelona, Paris and Turin. Producers and directors from around the world couldn’t resist his cinematic "tricks".

At the turn of the 19th and 20th century he set himself up in Barcelona, where he began to experiment in the field of cinematic special effects: first from his own production company (Macaya y Marro) and then for the most important film production company in the world, Pathé. It was at this time that he shot his best known film, L’hotel elèctric (The Electric Hotel, 1905), in which, for the first time in the history of cinema, he used the step-crank process (frame-by-frame animation, the precursor of stop-motion).

During his time in Paris, he shot many of his more surprising short films, both boundlessly imaginatively and technically innovative. One of them was the Excursion dans la lune (Trip to the Moon, 1909), an adaptation of Voyage dans la lune (Voyage to the Moon, 1902) by Méliès. The filmmaker hand-coloured the tape, a technique in which he was a pioneer.

Although his name was little known among the general public, he enjoyed prestige within the sector. He even collaborated with the directors Ferdinand Zecca (La Passion de Notre Seigneur Jésus Christ, The Passion of Christ; Le pêcheur de perles, The Peal Fishers) and Giovanni Pastrone (Cabiria) as camera operator and special effects technician. We must not forget that the filmmaker from Aragon can be considered the inventor of ‘travelling’ or ‘dolly shot’. His career culminated with Napoleon (1927), directed by Abel Gance, in which he used a system that would become the gateway for panoramic formats.

He died prematurely shortly before talking films took off, leaving a very important legacy for the development of the art of cinema.

With his Leica camera, he immortalised episodes of the Civil War which have gone on to become iconic images. Agustí Centelles (1909-1985) is one of the pioneers of modern photojournalism in Europe, often compared with Robert Capa.

Born in Valencia, as a child he moved with his family to Barcelona. He learned his trade through the Agrupació Fotogràfica de Catalunya (Photographic Association of Catalonia) and worked as a photojournalist in newspapers such as El día gráfico, La Humanitat, Diario de Barcelona, La Publicitat and La Vanguardia.

In the morning of 19th July, 1936, Centelles was the first photojournalist from Barcelona to come out into the street to document the events of the fascist uprising and the popular response. His aim was to photograph the councils of war, the formation of the militias, the columns leaving for the front, as well as the Battle of Teruel and the activity on the Aragon front. From there, he directed the Photographic Services Unit of the Eastern Army (1937). Shortly after, he was commissioned by the Photographic Office of Special State Department for Information (Departament Especial d'Informació de l'Estat), where he worked with the propaganda Commissioner of the Government, Jaume Miravitlles, and the photographers Salvador Pujol and Pere Català i Roca.
After the Republican defeat, he was forced into exile in France where, like many other refugees, he was interned in concentration camps: first at Argelès and after at Bram. But his vocation as a chronicler did not dessert him. There, with Salvador Pujol, he created a clandestine photographic laboratory and documented the living conditions of the refugees.

Until the end of the Franco regime, he was unable to publicise his work. In 1976, he retrieved the file that he had left hidden in Carcassonne 32 years before, which consisted of about 4,000 negatives from the Second Republic, the Spanish Civil war and the exile. In 1978, he had his first exhibition with the recovered material: Imatges d’un reporter (Images of a Reporter). Today, these photographs have become one of the main sources of graphical information of the contemporary history of Spain.

In 2009, in the midst of a great controversy, the sons of Agustí Centelles sold his father's archive to the Ministry of Culture and it is currently housed in the Centro Documental de la Memoria Histórica (Historical Memory Documentary Centre) in Salamanca. Even so, the Arxiu Fotogràfic de Barcelona (Photographic Archive of Barcelona) and MNAC (National Museum of Catalan Art) also hold copies from the period and positives made by the photographer.