{"id":29168,"date":"2021-09-30T11:32:55","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T11:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/?p=29168"},"modified":"2021-09-30T11:34:18","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T11:34:18","slug":"an-important-episode-in-the-history-of-graphic-humour-in-catalonia-the-agell-collection-in-the-museu-nacional-dart-de-catalunya-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/en\/an-important-episode-in-the-history-of-graphic-humour-in-catalonia-the-agell-collection-in-the-museu-nacional-dart-de-catalunya-2\/","title":{"rendered":"An important episode in the history of graphic humour in Catalonia: the Agell Collection in the Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya \/ 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Adela Laborda and Francesc Qu\u00edlez<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With regard to the thematic content, the majority of the works in the Agell Collection reflect the main historical events of the period stretching from the 1880s to the proclamation of the Second Republic (1931).<\/strong> In so turbulent a political context, it is natural that draughtsmen should have acted as notaries of current events and depicted the most outstanding ones. The images conserved can be grouped into three different centres of interest, based on the international and colonial wars (the First World War and the Spanish colonial wars in Morocco and Cuba), and they include political criticism, alluding to the regime of the Bourbon Restoration, with the depiction of a large number of its protagonists:<\/strong> Antonio Maura<\/a>, Francesc Camb\u00f3<\/a>, Jos\u00e9 Canalejas<\/a>, made to look like figures in a puppet theatre show, in which their main defects were ridiculed and caricatured with scathing, caustic humour. The erratic decisions of the leaders of a regime in the process of falling apart gave rise to very painful consequences for the poor working class, the victims of hunger and the rise in the cost of living, among other things. Generally speaking, the anticlerical and antimonarchic bias of the two publications for which this body of graphic work was produced, defined their character and became one of their distinctive traits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Picarol,<\/a>
Picarol, (Caricature of Jos\u00e9 Canalejas), Cover of the Almanac de La Campana de Gr\u00e0cia for1911<\/em><\/a> (083591-D), 1910<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are also a large number of illustrations showing the customs and morals of the day that help to inform and document that society\u2019s system of values and their hierarchization. They are actually a wide range of social, cultural and historical motifs that take on a visual form and enable us to understand the concerns and interests of both the protagonists and their actors. In this respect, some of the productions, especially the covers of the Almanac de la Campana de Gr\u00e0cia <\/em>and L\u2019Esquella de la Torratxa<\/em>, deviate from the aforementioned types and become expressions of a model of a more aesthetic nature. The artists usually took more care with their drawings and in formal and technical terms they endeavoured to create more studied compositions, forgoing the rapid and agile line that characterizes the drawings that illustrate a text or a cartoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With regard to the artists included in the collection, it may be said that it is a group of the most conspicuous representatives of Catalan graphic humour, except for two major absences: Josep Llu\u00eds Pellicer<\/a> and Apel\u00b7les Mestres<\/a>, by whom, surprisingly, there is no work conserved in the collection despite their being regular contributors to both publications. Notwithstanding that, this is a group of drawings representative of the work of more than 500 artists, a fact that reinforces the image of a diverse collection. This enables us to study, extensively and intensively, the work of the most qualified Catalan humorous graphic artists of the last third of the nineteenth and the first third of the twentieth century.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Most<\/a>
Most represented authors in the collections of drawings in the Drawings and Prints Cabinet of the Museu Nacional (graphic by Mireia Loran)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The variety can also be seen in the existence of different generational groups, from the oldest, represented by Manuel Molin\u00e9 Muns (Barcelona, 1833-1901), a versatile, multi-faceted creator, who besides drawing was also inclined to paint, and who, above all, became one of the earliest exponents of photography in Catalonia. In this respect, Molin\u00e9, the creator a group of 181 works, exemplifies a characteristic shared by all the draughtsmen, the need to work on a thousand and one things, to accept any and all kinds of work and to adapt to a very unstable market that precluded specialization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the other end of the timeline, we find the names of Rafael Barradas<\/a> and Juan Gris<\/a>, two artists who later became representatives of Avant-garde modernity. By the former, seven works have survived, and by the latter, just five, one of which is an inside cover of the Almanac de L\u2019Esquella de la Torratxa per a 1921<\/em>. The group is headed by the work of Josep Costa Ferrer, who has more than 5,600 compositions in the collection. After him, trailing a long way behind in second place we have Ramon Mir\u00f3 (Reus, 1864 \u2013 Barcelona, 1927), with 903 works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Juan<\/a>
Juan Gris, Inside cover of the Almanac<\/em> of L\u2019Esquella de la Torratxa<\/em> for 1921<\/a> (078098-D), 1911<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As well as all the artists mentioned so far, some of the most outstanding and renowned figures in the history of Catalan drawing are also present. Among them, we can mention the names of Lloren\u00e7 Brunet<\/a> and Jaume Passarell (Badalona, 1889 \u2013 Barcelona, 1975), represented with 167 and 79 productions, respectively, and also Rom\u00e0 Bonet, Bon<\/em>, (Barcelona, 1886-1967) and Gaiet\u00e0 Cornet (Barcelona, 1878-1945), with 146 and 138 works, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jaume<\/a>
Jaume Passarell, Cover of L\u2019Esquella de la Torratxa. Extraordinary edition<\/a> (077987-D), 1922<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Among the Modernista<\/em> illustrators, there is one of the great names, the draughtsman from Tarragona Ricard Opisso, represented with 179 works. Although with far fewer works, nine and seven, respectively, we should also mention the presence of two draughtsmen, Joan Cardona (Barcelona, 1877-1957) and Eveli Torent (Badalona, 1876 \u2013 Barcelona, 1940), both of whom, despite having had a great reputation in the Modernista<\/em> artistic context \u2013 the latter especially \u2013 have not received the recognition they deserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n