MNAC museum acquires collection of personal works by Helios Gómez 

A collection of works by Andalusian artist Helios Gómez was presented by the MNAC, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, on Monday. Helios Gómez was a painter, poster artist, poet and above all a leading avant-garde graphic artist. The artist settled in Barcelona in his later life and lived in the city until his death in 1956.  

The museum acquired his works following a donation from the artist's son, Gabriel Gómez. With this donation, the MNAC becomes a leading center for the study of Gómez's artistic legacy.  

The collection, consisting of six oil paintings, 27 drawings, and a book, offers a broad representation of his work across different periods. The works originated from the 1920s through the postwar years and into the 1950s. The museum also acquired three paintings previously owned by Gómez's son, which were already on loan to the museum and in its permanent collection.  

At a press conference, Gabriel Gómez and MNAC director Pepe Serra explained that this donation enhances the museum's collection of Civil War-era art. Among the works within the new collection, there are paintings and drawings that depict aspects of Romani culture.  

According to the MNAC, the six donated paintings belong to the artist's later period, created between the mid-1940s and mid 1950s, shortly before his death. In these paintings, Helios Gómez adopts a ''renewed'' artistic language, moving away from the graphic minimalism and ink-based techniques that defined his most iconic and widely recognized work from the 1930s, particularly during the Spanish Civil war.  

Notable pieces 

Among the most notable pieces is Transfixió (Transfiction), which prominently features surrealist elements that influenced many of Gómez's later compositions. Meanwhile Tauromàquia abstracta (Abstract Bullfighting) suggests a transition toward abstraction, a path the artist never fully explored due to his early death. 

The donation also includes three gouache paintings from the 1920s, reflecting a more well-known and popular side of Gómez’s work, as well as four Chinese ink drawings from the series Horrors of War. These latter pieces are considered among the most significant in his war-themed oeuvre, depicting harrowing scenes such as the bombing of a school and civilians taking refuge in the metro during air raids on Barcelona. 

Other ink and pencil drawings in the collection contain various political and social references, though they have yet to be fully studied and cataloged. 

Gabriel Gómez expressed great satisfaction at having recovered his father's work, ensuring their preservation at the MNAC: ''after 30 years of searching and retrieving these works, we have finally given Helios Gómez's art a permanent home. We are very happy that the MNAC accepted this donation. We have saved history.'' 

Gómez also shared that he only became aware of his father's artistic legacy in his forties when he developed an interest in his father's work and began researching it, concluding that his curiosity turned into deep admiration. 'My father created works of immense value and remarkable artistic quality,'' he concluded.