The National Art Museum of Catalonia’s Modern Art Collection was created from the Universal Exhibition of 1888, at which time the Barcelona City Council installed the then small collection of modern art, at that contemporary time, in the Palace of Fine Arts. The collection was significantly expanded with the acquisitions made by the City Council itself at the fine arts exhibitions. The current modern art collection brings together a best of Catalan art from the beginning of the century XIX until the 40 of century XX.
The journey begins with the artists who followed the postulates of neoclassicism, romanticism and realism. The neoclassics include the painter Josep Bernat Flaugier and the sculptor Damià Campeny.
As for the romance, include painters Nazarenes, like Claudius Lorenzale, who worked especially portrait and Louis Rigalt that opens the Catalan tradition of landscape.
In the age of realism, with Ramon Martí Alsina, who introduced the ideas of Courbet in Catalonia, and with Joaquim Vayreda, founder of the Olot School, among others. A separate chapter deserves Marià Fortuny, the best nineteenth-century Catalan painter, who triumphed internationally with genre painting, and wrote advanced approaches in his latest productions.
Also showcase are painters who opted for anecdotal realism, such as Romà Ribera and Francesc Masriera, as well as the “luministas” of the Sitges School, heirs to the Fortunian tradition; while in sculpture the Vallmitjana brothers stand out as the best representatives of the realist tradition. The 19th century collection also includes a sample of historical photography with works by AADisdéri, Jean Laurent, Le Jeune and Charles Clifford., among others, with images from various places in Spain.
One of the backbones of modern art collections is Modernism, a movement of great artistic and cultural importance in Catalonia. In painting, the current that is most identified with it is the renewal character led by Ramon Casas and Santiago Rusiñol, who in their Parisian works incorporated certain aspects of French impressionism. Another current is the symbolist, represented by the paintings of Alexandre de Riquer and Joan Brull, which can also be seen in some photographs of the pictorialist Pere Casas Abarca.. Equally important is the presence of second-generation Art Nouveau artists, such as Isidre Nonell, Marià Pidelaserra, Ricard Canals, Hermen Anglada Camarasa, Nicolau Raurich or Joaquim Mir, who, already in the 20th century, brought the painting Catalan to one of its brightest moments.
Also included are Spanish painters such as Julio Romero de Torres, Joaquim Sorolla, Ignacio Zuloaga, Darío de Regoyos and José Gutiérrez Solana, photographer Ortiz Echagüe and French artists Boudin, Sisley and Rodin. Regarding Modernist sculpture, it is worth highlighting the creations of Miquel Blay and Josep Llimona, with a clear influence of Rodin. The Modernist decorative art collection shows some exceptional sets of interior design by Josep Puig i Cadafalch, Gaspar Homar and Antoni Gaudí, respectively, coming from the Amatller, León Morera and Batlló houses, on Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona; as well as notable examples of the art of the object in forging, ceramics, glasswork and jewelry, not to mention the furniture sets by Joan Busquets and the architect Josep Maria Jujol.
The other movement widely represented at the MNAC is Noucentisme, which embodies the search for one’s own essence and Mediterranean. Representative are the classic compositions of Joaquim Torres-García and Joaquim Sunyer, with vague Cezannian influences, and the sculptural knots of Josep Clarà and Enric Casanovas. Sculptures by Manolo Hugué and paintings by Xavier Nogués complement this movement, with a marked popular accent. Towards 1920, a new generation of artists appeared who had to face the dilemma of following the figurative tradition or making the leap to the avant-garde.. Some of these, such as the painters Josep de Togores and Francesc Domingo i Segura, made their own production in the context of international interwar war realism. Others, such as Torres-García, Rafael Barradas or Salvador Dalí, found in the Dalmau Galleries the right place to exhibit their most innovative production.
Drawings, prints and posters
The MNAC’s Drawings and Prints Cabinet collections bring together about 50,000 drawings, about 70,000 prints and over 1,000 posters, belonging to the historical collection. The collections include a rich and plural display of the most important artistic trends and movements of Catalan art. However, this presence becomes more pronounced from the end of the eighteenth century, coinciding with the presence in Barcelona, since 1775, of the Free School of Design and Noble Arts, called the Llotja School, which became a benchmark in the consolidation of academicism in Catalonia.
19th Century we have a large representation of a group of artists linked to this school, among which are Josep Bernat Flaugier, Vicent Rodés, Claudi Lorenzale and Ramon Martí i Alsina, as well as some of the family lineages that, such as that of the Planella or the Rigalt, they make up the artistic stage that goes from neoclassicism to realism. We cannot forget the contribution of the leading Catalan Baroque painter, Antoni Viladomat, of whose age the Cabinet has a significant set of works. Recently, in 2003, Baroque Catalan artistic production has increased with the acquisition of a group of altar traces from theCésar Martinell, very unique and allows us to approach the study of Catalan altarpiece in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Undoubtedly, one of the main hallmarks of the collection is the important work of Marià Fortuny, of which there are kept more than 1,500 drawings and 50 engravings, which make this collection an obligatory reference to reconstruct the ‘creative itinerary by this 19th-century artist. Of this period more than 30 drawings by the painter of history Eduardo Rosales, acquired in 1912, that are related to the Testament of Isabel the Catholic and the Death of Lucretia, are two of his more paradigmatic historical compositions.
The Cabinet collections also have a rich representation of Modernist and Noucentista works. Specifically, the Cabinet collection includes more than 600 modernist posters by prominent Catalan and foreign artists, including those by Ramon Casas. Notable among this artist is the famous series of “Portraits on the Coal”, an authentic iconographic gallery of the personalities of the time in Catalonia, donated by the same author in 1909. Among the nineteenth-century authors, it is worth noting the remarkable collection of the work by Isidre Nonell, with more than 150 compositions.
It is worth mentioning also the collection of posters of that same period, which was largely acquired by the Museum in Lluís Plandiura in 1903. The more than 500 posters, including a notable presence of foreign authors, are a legacy of The invaluable heritage and exemplify, the posterism in Catalonia.
Finally, in spite of being an uneven bottom, it is necessary to refer to the representation of the avant-garde movements. In this sense, the sculptor Juli González is one of the best represented artists, thanks to the donation of more than 150 drawings made in 1972 by his daughter Roberta. On the contrary, the presence of two great creators of contemporary art, such as Dalí or Miró, is almost testimonial.
Regarding the formation of the collections of the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints, two important acquisitions of the Board of Museums are worth mentioning: the collection of the literary and artistic critic Raimon Casellas in 1911 and, ten years later, the collection of the artist modernist Alexandre de Riquer.
Photography
The photography collection has more than 6,000 copies. The earliest works are dated to the 19th century, but you can see works from different movements, such as pictorialism, new objectivity, photojournalism, to neo-realism and the contemporary period.
The collection has, despite some of its own acquisitions, been donated and deposited by collectors and the artists themselves (Colita, Joan Fontcuberta, Pere Formiguera, Carles Fontserè, Emili Godes, Josep Lladó, Oriol Maspons, Kim Manresa, Josep Masana, Otto Lloyd, Antoni Arissa, Josep Maria Casals and Ariet, Toni Bernad…)
Some of the works on display are in the Generalitat de Catalunya’s Art Collection repository, with works by Antoni Campañà, Pere Català Pic, Francesc Català Roca, Joan Colom, Manel Esclusa, Francesc Esteve and Soley, among others., and works also in the repository of the Photographic Group of Catalonia, with photos by Claudi Carbonell and Joan Porqueras, for example. In May 2012 the museum opened a monographic room with 24 works by Agustí Centelles and another with a selection of avant – garde photographers.Catalan photography until the Civil War.
National Art Museum of Catalonia
The National Art Museum of Catalonia, also known by its acronym MNAC, is a museum of art in the city of Barcelona which brings together all the arts whose mission is to preserve and exhibit the collection of Catalan art ‘s most important world, showing everything from Romanesque to the present. Its current director is Josep Serra.
The MNAC is a consortium with its own legal personality constituted by the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Barcelona City Council and the General State Administration. In addition to the public administrations, individuals and private entities collaborating with the administration are represented on the museum’s board of trustees.
The main headquarters are located in the National Palace of Montjuïc, opened in 1929 on the occasion of the International Exhibition. Three other institutions are also part of the museum as a whole: the Víctor Balaguer Museum Library in Vilanova i la Geltrú, the Garrotxa Museum in Olot and the Cau Ferrat Museum in Sitges, whose management is independent and its ownership is based on the respective councils.