Here is a visual review of 2016 at the Museu Nacional. It has been a year of intense activity during which we have concentrated on the construction of a more open and social museum. One of the most outstanding events of the year has been the growth of the collection of medieval material, thanks to the donation by Antonio Gallardo.
We take this opportunity to thank all of you, readers of this blog, museum visitors, participants in the activities, web users and people active in fthe networks, for your participation.
Temporary exhibitions
An exhibition dedicated to Luis de Morales, an artist who is representative of Hispanic painting of the 16th century, hitherto rather unknown. To find out more about this artist we recommend the article by Joan Yeguas in our blog. The exhibition was organized jointly with the Museo Nacional del Prado and the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao.
Lluïsa Vidal, Modernisme painter
This painter, draughtswoman and illustrator belonged to the young generation of Catalan Modernista artists. To learn more about her, Lluïsa Vidal, a woman artist in a world of men.
Ramon Casas and the shadow puppets at Els Quatre Gats. Bohemia and the popular imaginary
A group of 11 shadow puppets drawn by Casas, and cut out and mechanized by Josep Meifrèn, has been admitted to the museum. For this reason and as part of Ramon Casas Year (#AnyRamonCasas), the museum presented an intervention in rooms that displays this set, unique in its genre, which visibly connects with modernity, as the blog tells us.
For the first time in this country, an exhibition of the work of Marianne Breslauer, which included the majority of the photographs she took during a journey through Spain and Andorra, in the company of the Swiss writer Annemarie Schwarzenbach, in the spring of 1933.
Pablo Picasso visited this museum in September 1934, shortly before it was officially opened as the Museu d’Art de Catalunya, and he was captivated by the Romanesque Art collection. He was 52 years old, but his interest in Catalan medieval art had begun earlier, when he was a young man, and endured in time, as this exhibition shows.
Artistic contributions about the collection
America Sanchez. Romanesque portraits. Inks on paper
A small-format artistic proposal that showed the unpublished drawings that America Sanchez had done based on the museum’s Romanesque Art collection. The result was a series of portraits of the figures that appear in Romanesque paintings. You can access a commented selection of works from the museum’s collection done by America Sanchez in this virtual itinerary.
The museum established a connection with the world of comics in the context of the collaboration with the Comic Fair, and we invited Santiago García and Javier Olivares, winners of the National Comics Prize with their magnificent graphic novel Las Meninas, to present some of their works in the museum.
Sala 83 – David Bestué
A project reinterpreting the collection through the eyes of contemporary artist David Bestué.
The collection grows
Donation Antonio Gallardo, new masterpieces for the museum
This entry has been the most important in decades in the museum’s medieval collections.
Five works enter about the role of the PSUC’s historical archive
The PSUC and ICV have donated a group of five works to the Museu Nacional about the role of Ràfols-Casamada, Maria Girona, Josep Maria Subirachs, Josep Guinovart and Francesc Todó, essential names in Catalan art in the second half of the 20th century.
The permanent loan of a pacífic of Peter IV
As ruler, Peter of Portugal had a new gold coin minted that, for propaganda reasons, he called a pacífic. The museum has received an example on permanent loan, acquired by the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Conservation, restoration and research
Catalan art from the post-war years to the Transition
The museum is working to reinforce the collection of art from the second half of the 20th century. In 2016 it began a long-term project to recover the Catalan art from the post-war years to the Transition. The aim is to (re)write the story of the Catalan art of this period and to mark the enlargement of the collections exhibited in the museum. To encourage the exchange of ideas about this new historiography,the Ateneu Barcelonès played host to some discussion groups.
Congress of Jewellery
In November the 3rd European Congress was held, analysing jewellery in dialogue with the different arts and artists, from the medieval period to modern artists, in an international context.
Save The Violinist
Twelve years ago the first changes in the sculpture The Violinist were observed, due to the incompatibility of the materials with which it is made: a wood armature covered with lead. The studies have enabled us to put together a proposal for restoration, complex and costly, which is being carried out thanks to the crowd-funding campaign Save the Violinist (#SalvemViolinista) that was organized by the Amics del Museu Nacional.
Restauració
In 2016, among others, some of the works conserved in the museum by Ramon Casas and Luis de Morales were restored, so that they can be exhibited, and work has begun on the production of Ismael Smith, in preparation for the exhibition dedicated to this artist that the museum plans for 2017.
Públics
We grow with art: closing party of the Tandem project
The Tandem project ended and we celebrated it with a big party. Since the academic year 2013-2014 the museum and the neighbouring Miquel Bleach School have been working in the context of the Tandem Schools project, with the aim of enriching the educational experience, the quality of the learning and the improvement of academic results through art and heritage.
Women’s Day
We celebrated International Women’s Day, in collaboration with the Institut Català de la Dona, with the free screening of Big Eyes (Tim Burton, 2013). The presentation was given by Rosa Regàs.
Creators in residence: B-Toy
The well-known street artist BTOY, together with pupils of the Lluís Domènech i Montaner secondary school, created two murals in the context of the seventh edition of the Creadors en Residència programme. Both murals, one at the museum and the other at the school, were created and made together. You can see the mural Identities for free until February 2017 in the space adjacent to the Oval Hall.
Summer camp: do androids dream of the museum’s future?
For the first time, the museum organized a summer camp: films, new technologies, lots of adventures and a night at the museum. The boys and girls accompanied Neo on his journey into the past in order to be able to experience the present and change his and the museum’s future.
New Romanesque and Modernista menus by chef Fina Puigdevall at Òleum
Chef Fina Puigdevall, from the Les Cols restaurant (which has two Michelin stars), has created and designed a menu especially for our Òleum restaurant, which is inspired on the museum’s collections of Romanesque and Modernista art.
Audio-guides
New multimedia audio-guides in seven languages. Accessible for the hearing impaired.
Mondays at the Museu Nacional
A television documentary Els dilluns al Museu Nacional (Mondays at the Museu Nacional), made for the TV programme Tria33 and broadcast by Canal 33 on 28th December.
In the photo Pepe Serra, the director of the museum, presenting the preview at the museum.
The collection travels outside the museum
Ramon Casas, the Desired Modernity
To mark the commemoration of Ramon Casas Year (#AnyRamonCasas), the museum joined in the event and, together with the Museums of Sitges and the Obea Social “la Caixa”, organized and co-curated the central exhibition. This exhibition, which can be visited in Sitges until the19th February 2017, and then travels to Madrid (7/3/-11/6/2017) and Palma (5/7/-29/10/2017), presents approximately 200 works, paintings, drawings and posters, many of which belong to our museum’s collections.
The Museum of La Garrotxa has received 13 works from the Museu Nacional to renew its discourse
The Museum of La Garrotxa has received on permanent loan 13 of our works by artists Joaquim and Francesc Vayreda, Rafael Benet, Ignasi Mallol, Ramon Martí Alsina, Modest Urgell, Xavier Nogués, Lluís Rigalt and Joaquim Sunyer. This permanent loan is part of our museum’s strategic policy of making a determined commitment to museums in the territory.
Fortuny in Granada
The museum has organized, together with the Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife and the Obra Social “la Caixa”, a major retrospective exhibition of the years the XIXc painter Marià Fortuny spent in Granada. It can be visited in the Palacio de Carlos V inside the grounds of the Alhambra until 26 March 2017.
Gaudí travelled to Brazil
A selection of works from the museum’s Modernista collection travelled to Brazil to be part of the exhibition Gaudí: Barcelona 1900. To find out more details you can read the article in the blog in which the restorers who went with the works talk about the experience.
Digital
Beacons technology in the Modern Art rooms (pilot test)
The museum offers an interpretative visit of the new presentation of the Modern Art collection via an app and beacons sensors. It is offered in Catalan, Spanish and English. At this pilot stage is only available for Android.
The museum on Visitmuseum, the new app of the museums of Catalonia
Visitmuseum is the first app that includes information about all museums of Catalonia, in four languages: Catalan, Spanish, English and French. It currently includes 229 museums.
The initiative has been promoted by the Catalan Government.
Invited to share digital experiences in China and Argentina
The museum made a small tour of the Chinese cities of Chengdu, Shanghai and Wuhan to present our digital projects. In Argentina, we gave a seminar and workshops about digital communication to museum professionals from Buenos Aires and Salta.
The whole team at the museum wishes you a very happy 2017!!!
Photos: Marta Mérida, Àlex Masalles, Conxa Rodà
