We share a visual review of how 2018 has been for the Museu Nacional. It has been a year of intense activity focused on the reopening of the renovated galleries of the Renaissance and Baroque collection and the preparation of the Museum’s Strategic Plan for 2019-2022.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you, readers of this blog, visitors to the museum, participants in the activities, users of the web and people who are active in the social media for your participation.
New display of the Renaissance and Baroque collection
An open narrative, with an expositive discourse based on new criteria of presentation of the works. Some 300 works, 22 pieces of which have never been exhibited before.
New rooms of the modern art collection
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Two new galleries dedicated to post-war and Neo avant-garde art, the incorporation to the discourse of three works by Picasso deposited by the Museu Picasso Barcelona and the project by the artist Pedro G. Romero, Room.
Temporary Exhibitions
William Morris and the Arts & Crafts Movement in Great Britain, an exhibition about the Arts and Crafts movement, linked to design and the decorative arts, and its maximum ideologist William Morris, artist and writer. In collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The first retrospective exhibition dedicated to the figure of Gala Dalí, an enigmatic and intuitive womanworks., who related with many artists and intellectuals and who ended up being a fully-fledged artist herself. Coproduced together with the Salvador Dalí Foundation.
Liberxina, pop and new artistic behaviour, places the focus on the cultural revolutions that took place around 1968. An exhibition about the Catalan artistic proposals between 1966 and 1971: the emergence of pop art and the new figuration.
The collection grows
- Accquisition of a set of 16 copies of paper currency produced during the Civil War by means of the micro-patronage of Mr Arturo Godó i Hernández. A collection of coins and notes has been also donated by Mr Godó himself. These acquisitions allow the collection of the GNC the Numismatic Cabinet of Catalonia to be completed and to fill gaps in the collection.
- Based around the exhibition of Ismael Smith, the beauty and the monsters held in 2017, the museum has acquired two masks and has received the donation of a jewel and two drawings by the artist.
- Donation of photographs by Josep Maria Casals i Ariet made by his daughter Gabriela. This includes 254 bromoil transfers, 1,164 coloured slides and a wide repertoire of copies of work.
- Through the Integral Plan of Visual Arts of the Generalitat de Catalunya a work by Magda Bolumar has been acquired, as well as one by J. Fin and one by Francesc Todó.
- A post-war painting has also by received through a donation, by the artist Ramon Llovet.
- It is also worth highlighting the purchase of a photograph by Joan Vilatobà and the acquisition of two drawings by Antoni Gaudí, with the representation of the interior and exterior of the church of the Colònia Güell.
Conservation, restoration and research
During 2018 we have worked on works of the Renaissance and Baroque collection, in the study and documentation of the interventions carried out for the new presentation of the galleries.
Contemporary works of art destined to the Liberxina exhibition and the Post-war galleries have posed new challenges of conservation for the preservation and restoration staff.
125 participants from all of the State attended the XVI National Congress of Numismatics entitled Treasures and monetary findings: protection, study and musealization. 5 talks, 63 communications and 5 posters were presented.
Connecting with the audiences
Approaching the collections to the language of comic through Ego sum lux còmic, a graphic installation given by students from the Centre of comic and visual arts Escola Joso.
The museum jointly published with Norma Editorial the comic Gothic, by the writer Jorge Carrión and the artist Sagar Fornies, in which they explore the collection of Gothic art of the Museu Nacional through this visual language.
We would like to highlight the variety of family activities that we have carried out this year with the new Family programme.
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The biggest drawing ever done in the city occupying the Oval Hall of the museum: The artist Perico Pastor painted a large awning, full of dancing words in the collaborative workshop Big Draw 2018.
The students from the Institut Juan Manuel Zafra of the neighbourhood of Clot of Barcelona spent a night at the museum. It formed part of the artistic research that they had carried out in the museum throughout the course within the framework of InResidence. As a result of their research in the space of educArt of the museum you could visit From six to six.
The collection travels out of the museum
The museum has continued its line of international loans. This year, among others, the following works have travelled:
- A work by Nonell and one by Anglada Camarassa have been loaned to the Palais des Beaux-Arts of Brussels.
- Three works by Ramón Casas, one by Casagemas and one by Santiago Rusiñol to the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
- A still life by Viladomat has travelled to the Musei Reali di Torino
- An emblematic piece by Ribera has recently been loaned to the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London.
Works by Ramon Pichot from our collection have been present in different venues of the Obra Social “La Caixa” and in 2018 the long travelling itinerary continued of works by Marià Fortuny in the exhibition Time of reenactment: Andalusia in the imagery of Fortuny.
More than 40 artworks from the museum’s collection have been loaned, between loans and deposits, for exhibitions of the Network of Art Museums of Catalonia.
Works by Bartolomé Bermejo of the museum have participated in the exhibition dedicated to this artist in the Museo del Prado, jointly organised with the Museu Nacional. The exhibition will be presented in our musuem in March 2019.
Social Responsibility
The first course about Arts in Health of the State gathered together around 50 professionals from museums and from the health sector with the participation of notable international experts, to spread and debate about the contributions that art can have in the field of health and well-being.
A working group on internal communication has been created which is working on a plan for improving the information, to be able to do a better planning in terms of the tasks to be carried out, and improving the organisation, as well as fostering the involvement of the team in the life of the Museum.
The museum has set in motion a new line of training for the staff, focused on the well-being of the workers. Mindfulness and Affective Communication has been one the first course and one that has been very well received, taking place during 2018.
We have also participated with workers from different museums in an activity of solidarity with Proactiva Open Arms
Digital
The Museu Nacional has joined the European project for digitization of its collection SC Modules that allows the incorporation of content in the digital platform Second Canvas. with image sin super high resolution and storytelling. The free app, also in English, can be download at Google Play and App Store.
The museum has participated in the Mobile Week Bcn in the selection of the 10 finalist works on show in the exhibition The everyday future of the mWeekGALLERY and in the dialogues of reflection about digital transformation. The museum exhibited two of the finalist works.
This year we have also formed part of the European digital project ViMM Virtual multimode museums.
The museum has set in motion a project aimed making all the artworks of the museum accessible online as soon as possible. This year the number of items of the online collection has increased by 40%.
