{"id":13246,"date":"2018-05-10T10:59:09","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T10:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/?p=13246"},"modified":"2020-12-17T12:59:55","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T12:59:55","slug":"bookplates-of-museu-nacional-dart-de-catalunya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/en\/bookplates-of-museu-nacional-dart-de-catalunya\/","title":{"rendered":"Bookplates of Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya"},"content":{"rendered":"
Adela Laborda, Francesc \u00a0Qu\u00edlez and Merc\u00e8 Saura, with the collaboration of Carme Osan<\/h6>\n

The museum conserves in the Cabinet of Drawings, prints and posters<\/a> some 15,000 bookplates<\/a>\u00a0(exlibris<\/em>)<\/b>, the Latin term used to call those small works of art printed on paper that indicate the name of the owner of a book and that tend to be stuck on the spine of the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\"Mathilde<\/a>

Mathilde Ade, Maurice Maeterlinck book-plate<\/a><\/em>, circa 1902<\/p><\/div><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Beyond their artistic interest, these productions have a major historical relevance, given the fact that they document a period of major activity of Catalan graphic arts,<\/strong> with the recuperation of traditional practices and trades.\u00a0 This creative fertility would have been unthinkable without the existence of some clients with a high level of cultural awareness.\u00a0 In this sense, the practice of collecting ex-libris, or bookplates, that cannot be understood without the appearance of a cultural context in which the habit of reading and the veneration of the book are socially assumed values.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

A distinctive character<\/h3>\n

The ex-libris of the Cabinet come mainly from the collection of the pioneer of Modernist graphic arts in Catalonia, Alexandre de Riquer<\/a>,<\/strong> and of the collection gathered together by his disciple Josep Triad\u00f3<\/a><\/strong>. This is a collection which included their own works and that at the same time are complementary.\u00a0 While Riquer showed a predilection for English and North American productions, \u00a0Triad\u00f3 opted for mainly German and Central European art.<\/p>\n

\"Alexandre<\/a>

Alexandre de Riquer, Book-plate Pau Font de Rubinat<\/a><\/em>, 1903<\/p><\/div>\n

The collection of the museum allows us to follow the milestones of the ex-libris work between the 16th century and the last decades of the 20th by the great masters of the genre.<\/p>\n

Opening up the way to ex-libris work<\/h3>\n

Riquer and Triad\u00f3 were already considered in their time the drivers of the resurgence of Hispanic ex-libris that took place at the beginning of the 20th century. Both were able to arouse the interest of a number of artists who favoured the development of collecting, often based on the exchange of copies.<\/p>\n

\"Artur<\/a>

Artur Carbonell Carbonell, Rafael Mas\u00f3 ex-libris<\/a><\/em>, circa 1933<\/p><\/div>\n

This ensured the international diffusion of Catalan ex-libris<\/strong> and the local knowledge of foreign currents at a time of coexistence between Modernism<\/a> and Noucentisme<\/a>. Precisely these two artistic movements can be found to be very well represented in the museum’s ex-libris collection.<\/p>\n

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