Girona Art Museum spotlights Polish painter Mela Muter

Girona’s Art Museum has a new exhibition on the Polish painter, Mela Muter, which includes work by some of her compatriots, called Mela Muter i els artistes polonesos a Catalunya (Mela Muter and Polish artists in Catalonia).

The artist’s connection to Catalonia began in 1911 when her work was displayed in Barcelona alongside other Polish artists. The exhibition was repeated the following year, but on that occasion Mela Muter came over with her work.

“Her glamour fascinated Barcelona society, who incorporated her into its circles,” says Susanna Portell, who is curating the Girona exhibition with Glòria Bosch.

Bosch and Portell discovered Muter when they were working on an exhibition of international artists who painted in Tossa from 1916 to the outbreak of the Civil War. That took them to Poland, where they met collectors who have lent works for this exhibition.

The museums’ director, Carme Clusellas, insists other galleries should take more interest in this artist who was ignored after the Second World War. “That Girona should be the one to take this first step is just about obligatory because the city was a turning point in her career,” she adds.

The exhibition has work from other Polish painters, such as Olga Bozanaska, Eugene Zak, Elie Nadelman and Léopold Gottlieb.