Plastic and visual arts

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.

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.

You can discover the history of Tortosa in one of the most significant buildings of the city. This is the old abattoir, a modernista work by the architect Pau Monguió, built on land reclaimed from the River Ebro. In 2012, on the centenary of the Museum of Tortosa it was moved and advantage was taken of the pavilions to display a completely renovated Museum project.

The museum has a collection of more than 4,000 pieces among which include prehistoric flint tools, Roman funerary stones, Andalusian pottery, Gothic capitals, signs of flooding, the tools of one of the last potters of Tortosa, and paintings and sculpture by artists from Tortosa, among others.

The tour of the permanent exhibition provides information on the history of Tortosa and its surrounding regions, from the prehistoric times to the present day. Remains from Ilercavonia, Dertosa or Turtuxa are displayed. You can see the most representative pieces from each historical period from the museum’s own collection and from other museums that have made loans to the collection, such as the Prado Museum, the MNAC (National Art Museum of Catalonia), the National Archaeolgical Museum of Tarragona and the Museu de les Terres de l’Ebre. The contemporary work of the artist Leonardo Escoda interacts obliquely with the space and the content of the museum.

The idea of creating a museum in Valls goes back to 1909. From that time onwards, it has received donations and loans from patrons such that it now holds a collection of over a thousand works of Catalan art from the last 120 years, considered one of the best in Catalonia.

Located in the Casa de Cultura since 1970, its premises were completely refurbished in 1993. Taking a chronological journey through the collection, there are examples of Realism (F. Galofré Oller, Josep Marqués, Baldomer Galofré) and Modernism and Impressionism (Isidre Nonell, Eliseu Meifrén, Enric Galwey, Joan Llimona, Francesc Vayreda) and Noucentisme (Joaquim Sunyer, Enric Casanovas). One of the jewels of the museum is the collection of paintings, sculptures and jewellery by Manolo Hugué, linked to the early avant-garde.

The museum also has a good representation of the post-war artists (Josep M. Mallol Suazo, Josep Amat, Joan Miró, Antoni Tàpies, Joan Brossa, Apel·les Fenosa, Modest Cuixart).

Notable is its photography collection, thanks to the loan made in 1998 by the photographer Francesc Català-Roca. It is completed with works by Pere Català Pic, Pere Català Roca, Colita, Xavier Miserachs, Leopoldo Pomés and Oriol Maspons.

In addition to the art collection, the Museum of Valls also holds an important archaeological collection focused on the Iberian world, available to researchers, and an ethnographic collection of the castellera (human towers) which will become part of the future Museu Casteller de Catalunya (Human Tower Museum of Catalonia).

To understand what the twentieth century meant at an artistic level for the western regions of Catalonia, you should visit the Museu d'Art Jaume Morera, dedicated to modern and contemporary art in Lleida. Various artistic disciplines are represented here: painting, sculpture, architecture, drawing, print-making, graphic design, photography, video and even comics, with a clear predominance of local artists.

Opened in 1917 in the former Sant Lluís market, it is currently located in the Casino Principal building in Lleida pending the construction of its new headquarters. The painter Jaume Morera i Galícia, who donated his art collection and acted as patron, played a very prominent role in the initial tasks of putting together the museum's art collection. In gratitude for his collaboration, the Museum was named after him.

The collection ranges from the turn of the nineteenth century up to the present day: from Baldomer Gili, Xavier Gosé and Santiago Rusiñol to Joan Brossa and Albert Bayona. One of the most important parts of the collection, however, concerns the Avant-garde of the 1930s, in which pride of place is given to 190 works by the sculptor Leande Cristòfol such as De l’aire a l’aire (From Air to the Air, 1933) or Nit de lluna (Night of the Moon, 1935).

The landscapes of Garrotxa have been a source of inspiration for several generations of artists, as a visit to this museum makes clear. Located on the third floor of the eighteenth century hospital building, the Museum of Garrotxa (Olot) displays the artistic activity of the region between the late eighteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, placing the main emphasis on the Olot landscape school of painting. This movement from the second half of the nineteenth century, led by the siblings Joaquim and Marià Vayreda and Josep Berga i Boix, introduced the model of the Barbizon school of landscape painting to Catalan art.

Works by local artists such as Miquel Blay, Josep Clarà, Ramon Amadeu, Josep Berga i Boada, Melcior Domenge, Iu Pasqual, Francesc Vayreda, Xavier Nogués, Leonci Quera, Josep Pujol, Xavier Gosé and Laureà Barrau, among others, form part of the museum's collection.

The collection is completed with the presence of artists from outside the region, mainly from the turn of the 19th century, such as Enric Galwey, Joan Llimona, Joan Brull, Joaquim Mir and Ramon Casas, who is given pride of a place in the museum and whose painting La càrrega (The Charge), a large canvas which, at the time, was very controversial, has been in the museum’s collection since 1919. Also noteworthy is the collection of Modernista posters.

In 2016, the permanent exhibition was expanded with the donation of 13 works from the MNAC (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya) by artists who were influenced by the Olot landscape painting school, such as Rafel Benet, Ramon Martí Alsina and Modest Urgell, which allows a more comprehensive reading of the museum collection to be made.

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.

The painter Josep Guinovart i Bertran, the greatest representative of informalism, spent much of the Civil war in Agramunt, the home town of his mother. He was then about 9 or 10 years old. To escape the bombardments, he lived with his family in a hut in a field. Despite the fact that he returned to Barcelona in 1941, this experience brought him closer to nature and to the rural environment that influenced his work and connected him forever to the municipality. So much so that in 1990 the artist wanted to create a centre for the creation and promotion of contemporary art in Agramunt: the Espai Guinovart.

It was inaugurated in 1994 and is housed in an old market building from the 1930s. The side porches, where the stalls were located, have been preserved. They have now been converted into galleries to display the Foundation’s Collection on a rotating basis. The large central space, formerly occupied by open stalls, now houses the Mural de les quatre estacions (Mural of the Four Seasons) and two installations: La cabana (The Hut) and L’era (The Threshing Floor).

These three works were conceived especially for the Espai Guinovart. They are centred around Agramunt, the territory, its landscape and its people. From the imagination centred on the locality, a universal vision is created that deals with themes such as the cycle of life or the habitat in relation to nature.