A season packed with art
Barcelona's galleries have a host of exhibitons this year, including Ismael Smith, Lluïsa Vidal and Oriol Vilanova
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Toni Catany. -
contemporary African design. -
A painting by Picasso. As every year, the cubist genius will have a strong showing. ARCHIVE. -
A self-portrait by Lluïsa Vidal ARCHIVE. -
A detail from a painting by Hiroshi Sugimoto. Just a taste of some of the artists featured in Barcelona's galleries and museums this season. /.
Galleries have to resort to championing homegrown talent
Pedrera has the work of Toni Catany from March 15
CaixaForum will cause a stir with impressionist masterpieces
Barcelona's galleries and museums will largely devote 2016 to promoting different Catalan artists, so that the new season of exhibitions will be a celebration of the country's art. In most cases, they will not attract long queues of visitors, because the artists in question are relatively unknown to the wider public. However, unlike in Madrid, this model has held sway in Barcelona for a number of years, thanks to limited resources that have required galleries to use their imaginations and increasingly resort to championing homegrown talent.
MNAC, the leading gallery for Catalan art, is still working on its offer for the new season, but what has been announced so far is promising. There will be at least three large exhibitions devoted to Catalan artists: Ismael Smith, Pere Torné Esquius and the work of a woman, the modernist Lluïsa Vidal. Picasso will also get a look in as part of an exhibition being prepared with the gallery in Paris that bears his name. The work of the genius from Malaga will be contrasted with MNAC's Romanesque legacy.
Speaking of medieval collections, this year will see the appearance of 17 works donated by the art collector, Antonio Gallardo Ballart. And, in June, Barcelona will welcome El diví Morales, a project shared with Madrid's Prado gallery and Bilbao's museum of fine arts, devoted to the Renaissance work of Luis Morales.
While for fans of photography, there will be a display of German photographer Marianne Breslauer's work. In fact, as far as photography exhibitions are concerned, it seems there will be something for everyone. For example, the Pedrera will feature the work of Toni Catany. D'anar i tornar (from March 15 to July 17) with a must-see display of the work of this extraordinary photographer who died so suddenly a couple of years ago. The exhibition will be an anthology of Catany's work, including much that has never been seen before. Meanwhile, La Pedrera has a surprise for the autumn with an exhibition devoted to Jorge Oteiza (from September 27 to January 22).
More photography
There will be more photography at the recently inaugurated Fundació Mapfre, beginning the year with an exhibition of Hiroshi Sugimoto (from February 17 to March 5), which will continue with one on Bruce Davidson (from May 26 to August 28). The two exhibitions at the Casa Garriga Nogués will show two very distinct approaches to photography, the first being more artistic in focus and the second documentary.
La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, meanwhile, will in March feature the photographs of Jorge Ribalta, and Arts Santa Mònica will have Nous relats fotogràfics (from May 5 to July 3), displaying the results of an investigation into how the world of photography has developed in recent years in both Catalonia and Spain in general, in terms of new formats, the evolution of photojournalism as well as excursions into surrealism. In fact, the arts centre at the end of the Rambla has a packed programme this season. Perhaps the most interesting is the exhibition currently running until April 10, Paraules pixelades, the first large-scale exhibition in the world devoted to digital literature. In the summer, Fermín Muguruza will curate Black is Beltza (from June 21 to July 31), an analysis of the graphic novel created by the writer Harkaitz Cano and illustrated by Jorge Alderete, which tells of an incident in which black people were banned from taking part in a New York fashion show. While yet another project at Santa Mònica will be Nunes, més enllà del temps (from July 14 to October 2), about the film director from the Escola de Barcelona who died in 2010.
Not much is yet known about the offering from the Museu Picasso, although the gallery's website has announced that its exhibition of the year will be Cubisme i guerra. El cristall dins la flama (from October 20 to January 29), an exhibition that focuses on the survival of the European artistic avant-garde in Paris during the First World War and its response to the pain and danger brought about by the conflict through cubism, with its values of control, coherence and integrity. Picasso, Juan Gris and Diego Rivera will be the main artists featured in the exhibition, although it promises to be a veritable festival of top-class artists and their work.
Of the few exhibitions expected to cause a widespread stir, CaixaForum will open one on March 11 devoted to the masterpieces of impressionism and modern art from the Phillips Collection. The Fàbrica Casaramona will also focus on contemporary art (El pes d'un gest is curator Julião Sarmento's evaluation of the Gulbenkian, Macba and La Caixa collections, from February 12 to May 1), on archaeology (Ming: l'imperi daurat, from June 15 to October 2) and, naturally, photography (Sorprènme! Fotografies de Philippe Halsman, from July 13 to November 6).
Nor has Macba so far revealed much about its programme this season. However, the star exhibition for the first part of the year will be on US artist Andrea Fraser, whose work uses text, installations, video, performances and documentary material to focus on existential issues and the internal conflicts within art and the various interests of its main players (artists, collectors, gallery owners, patrons, directors and the public). Another high point of Macba's year as announced so far will be the long-awaited exhibition by Antoni Miralda.
Duchamp at the Miró
The Fundació Miró's season will feature the presentation in April of its newly extended and improved collection. As for exhibitions, the foundation will have two main ones: one by Ignasi Aballí, the Joan Miró 2015 prizewinner (from June 30 to October 2) and, to end the season on a high point, will be Final de partida: Duchamp, els escacs i les avantguardes (from October 27 to January 22), an exhibition presenting the game of chess as a continual leitmotif of the progress of modern art in the spheres of leisure and innovation.
As for the CCCB, the arts centre has an interesting programme with a spicy autumn exhibition: 1.000 metres quadrats de desig, which will deal openly with the connection between architecture and eroticism. In the spring, (from March 22 to July 31), Africa and its contemporary design will be the protagonist in an exhibition that is currently doing fantastically in Bilbao's Guggenheim museum. And in the summer, the CCCB will get on board with the Any Llull with La màquina de pensar. De l'Ars Magna a l'art computacional (from July 13 to December 11).
The hand of Carles Guerra will begin to make itself felt in the Fundació Tàpies through a number of projects. Among them will be exhibitions devoted to Harun Farocki (from June 1 to October 16) and to Oriol Vilanova (from November 10 to March 5).
Following the summer break, the Museu del Disseny will focus on ceramics in architecture, while the Museu de Cultures del Món, will in June begin an exhibition about Barcelona's colonial relationship with Equatorial Guinea. Meanwhile, the Fundació Vila Casas will continue to champion Catalan art as always with Ramon Enrich, Jaume Mercadé and, currently, Una col·lecció per a un viatge. Promoció d'Arquitectes Barcelona 1960 (until April 31).