The European Museum of Art houses 20th and 21st Century figurative paintings and sculptures from all over the world. It is located in Barcelona’s Palau Gomis, next to the Picasso Museum. The MEAM belongs to a private institution and aims at becoming a reference within European figurative art’s landscape.
Catalonia’s National Museum of Art (MNAC) hosts the most important collection of Romanesque art in the world. It displays works from the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, and some mural painting ensembles that are unique. After half a year of intense renovation, the Romanesque collection is on show again, with a new narrative.
The new art museum will focus on Catalan painting and will display parts of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection. The city council approved the excutive project to build the Thyssen Museum. The project will cost 15 million euros (3 less than initially planned) and will restore an old cork factory.
The surrealist Catalan painter Joan Miró will have a museum in the country house he spent parts of his childhood and youth, in Mont-Roig del Camp, next to Tarragona. The family, experts and Barcelona’s Miró Foundation will decide on the exact contents, which will be displayed via permanent and temporary exhibitions.
The MACBA is one of the main European centres for having the work of Matta-Clark. The MACBA Foundation has now received a unique and new collection of Matta-Clark’s work. In 2012, it will hold a temporary exhibition with the work of the American artist, famous for his deconstruction pieces and ‘building cuts’ in the 1970s.
Barcelona’s Picasso Museum and the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres were the top visited museums last year in Catalonia. The Sagrada Família received more than 2.3 million visitors.
An exhibition on the rise and fall of the Catalan industrial and financial bourgeoisie in the 19th century titled ‘Gold Fever’ inaugurates the new CaixaForum in Girona. After the merger with La Caixa, the cultural centre of the former savings bank Caixa Girona has been transformed into the new CaixaForum.
A special exhibition is showing Pablo Picasso’s art with lithography, a printmaking technique he explored. Picasso made a total of 450 pieces using this craft, which he revolutionised. The museum in Barcelona already owns 300 of them.
Plensa is the artist behind the famous ‘Crown Fountain’ in Chicago’s Millenium Park, as well as London’s blue light ‘Breathing’ located on the roof of the BBC’s Egton House, dedicated to journalists killed in action. ‘Echo’ is a giant white head with closed eyes, similar to ‘Dream’ set in Liverpool. Plensa’s sculptures deal with human forms, communication, emptiness and a globalised identity.
An exhibition devoted to Miró’s work opens on Thursday in London. It is the first time in 50 years that a large number of paintings by the Catalan artist are displayed in the United Kingdom.
‘Haití, 34 segons després’ (Haití, 34 seconds later) includes unpublished photos, documentaries and restoration projects. The exhibition wants to commemorate the earthquake victims as well as picturing the drama behind and the reconstruction efforts.
The Comic Book and Illustration Museum aims to contribute to the development of a cultural industry with a long tradition in Catalonia. Professionals ask the already approved museum to open its doors by 2013 in Badalona, next to Barcelona.
‘Construir la Revolució. Art i arquitectura a Rússia, 1915-1935’ (‘Building the Revolution. Art and architecture in Russia, 1915-1935’) will run until April 17th. The exhibition focuses on the first Soviet art during the Russian Revolution, Lenin and the first Stalin period.
Barcelona’s ‘La Virreina’ centre opened an art exhibition about the important changes that happened in 1979 at local and global level. Some of the moments captured in the display are revolutions in Iran and Nicaragua, Margaret Thatcher being sworn into office, the first democratic elections in Spain and Sony’s walkman era.
The masterpiece ‘Tres ics’ is now the artist’s most expensive work. The painting that represents a bullfighting arena was sold at Christie’s auction house in London this week for 1.5 million euros.