artists

Catalonia’s National Museum of Art (MNAC) proposes a new way to discover its Romanesque Art collection – which is the most important in the world – through the eyes of an important figure of European Contemporary Art: the Catalan Painter, Sculptor and Essayist Antoni Tàpies (1923 - 2012). The Barcelona-based museum has carried out a “small intervention” in the halls of the Romanesque collection so that visitors are able to see the exhibited works with interpretation elements and views linked with Tàpies’ work and thoughts. In addition, the MNAC is also exhibiting one of the artist’s most emblematic works: the Romanesque Painting with Barratina (Pintura Romànica i Barretina, 1971)

This Friday, the Joan Miró Foundation presented the program for the 2013-2014 season. ‘Art in Public Space’ is the provisional title of the project that will take place between January and July of next year. It will bring together sketches, preparatory drawings, models, photographs and videos that form the background of Miró’s work that has been showcased in public areas. The Director of the Foundation, Rosa Maria Malet, also shed light on forthcoming temporary exhibitions including ‘Before the Horizon’ and ‘A place where artists have the right to fail. Stories of Espai 10 and Espai 13 at the Fundació Joan Miró’.

This Wednesday, the world premier of the chamber opera ‘Wow!’ takes place at the Festival of Peralada Castle, located in northern Catalonia’s Costa Brava. The libretto is inspired by texts written by Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman, building a relationship between the two poets. The opera will be staged in the cloister of El Carme Church in Peralada, which has a capacity of 400 people. The play is structured in a single act with a prologue and four scenes. It explores the themes of dreaming, death, ascension and immortality. The score and the text are the work of Catalan composer García Demestres, while the stage director is Xavier Albertí, who is the new Director of the National Theatre of Catalonia (TNC).

Maspons was one of the greatest Catalan photographers of all time. He is famous for his pictures of the former Somorrostro slum in the Barceloneta beach, party life in Ibiza during the 1970s and Barcelona’s left-wing group of bourgeois intellectuals from the 1970s, known as ‘Gauche Divine’. Maspons worked mostly in Catalonia, but also in Paris and the States. In fact, New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) exhibits pictures taken by Oriol Maspons. He received top honours in Catalonia, such as the Catalan Government’s Sant Jordi Cross and Barcelona City’s Gold Medal. In 2010, he donated his private collection of some 5,500 pictures to Catalonia’s National Museum of Art (MNAC), which will organise a “large exhibition” on his work.

The Landscape of the Geniuses tourism project celebrates how the Province of Tarragona (south Catalonia) has influenced the work of four world renowned artists: Antoni Gaudí, Joan Miró, Pau Casals and Pablo Picasso. The route focuses on four municipalities in the Costa Daurada and the Ebro Valley, in which these artists spent a considerable amount of time, and explore how the region left a lasting impression and inspired them in the creation of their work. The route involves 270 points of interest and accommodation facilities that include: museums, architecture, restaurants, hotels and campsites. A tourist card gives access to all of the visitor centres along the route as well as numerous discounts.

After Francisco Goya, Marià Fortuny is considered the greatest Spanish painter of the 19th century. He was deeply influenced by Goya and by his trip to Africa. His pictures are characterised by bright colours and intense dynamism. He also began to show elements of Impressionism in his work.. The exhibition contains 45 paintings that pay tribute to his 175th birthday. It is a project organised by the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) and the local museum of the artist’s hometown, Reus, near Tarragona.

The Catalan band Delafé y Las Flores Azules is one of the most unclassifiable groups in Spain. Their style is a mix of hip-hop, pop, indie and rock, and their concerts are an exhibition of movement, music and colour. After ten years on the stage Delafé y las Flores Azules release their fourth album, “De Ti Sin Mí/De Mí sin Ti” (You Without Me/Me Without You). The disc has two CD’s in which the band performs the same songs in two different melodies. Compared to their latest albums, this record is a more melancholic, nostalgic and less electronic product.

Not many Catalan writers present the complexity and multiple facets that Salvador Espriu can offer. An intellectual committed to his nation and language, Espriu (1913-1985) was one of the greatest writers of his time. He left an extensive literary legacy, characterised by his deep words and reflections concerning death, pain and personal identity. His poems have a foundation in Cabalism and Jewish traditions, which is what makes his work so universal and what probably lends him a huge international recognition, even by writing in a minority language. This year has been called ‘Any Espriu’ (Espriu Year) in order to celebrate the centenary of his birth.

The President of the Parisian centre, Alain Seban, compared Albert Serra’s work to that of Salvador Dalí, who he said was “another brilliant Catalan”. The Pompidou Centre will show Serra’s films, including his most recent one: ‘The three little pigs’ (2012), which is an experiment on Goethe, Hitler and Fassbinder and lasts 101 hours. ‘Honor de cavalleria’ (‘Knighthood honour’ in English, from 2006) and ‘El cant dels ocells’ (‘Song of the birds’, from 2008) will also be shown. The exhibition will run in the French capital from the 17th of April to the 12th of May. In addition, the Parisian museum will organise debates, such as the one on bullfighting with Serra and the painter Miquel Barceló.

The Hasselblad Foundation has awarded its 2013 prize to the Catalan photographer Joan Fontcuberta. The jury highlighted the fact that Fontcuberta “is one of the most imaginative contemporary photographers” today. This is the most prestigious award at international level in the field of photography. It comes with 1 million Swedish crowns (around €110,000). The award ceremony took place in Barcelona on Thursday evening. In October, Gothenburg’s Art Museum will hold an exhibition on Fontcuberta’s work. His creations “adopt original and playful conceptual perspectives, which particularly explore photography conventions, means of representation and claims to truth”, stated the jury.

Isabel Coixet, who has worked with top stars such as Tim Robbins, Ben Kingsley or Penelope Cruz, has released her new movie, ‘Yersterday never ends’, which is a stark portrait of the economic crisis. The film premiered at the last Berlinale. Coixet talked to ACN about the movie and the problems which are shaking the foundations of Spain. She also highlighted the movie was made without receiving public funds, as it would have been contradictory with the drama picture on the screen.

Eric Roth, writer of “Forrest Gump” or “Munich”, will be joining him in the making of this new movie. Juan Antonio Bayona, after conquering the world of Spanish cinema with his movie “The Orphanage” and entering the worldwide market with “The Impossible”, is now undertaking a project to direct a science fiction film in Hollywood. Few details have been revealed so far, but the announcement has raised great expectation given the enormous success of the first two films by the Catalan director.

The French Arts Centre is organising one of the largest and most complete retrospective exhibitions on the Catalan artist. 33 years ago, when Dalí was still alive, the Centre Pompidou held a retrospective of his work. In the 2012 exhibition, which will run until the 25th of March 2013, it is claimed that Dalí is one of the most influential artists ever, who not only shaped surrealism but also pop art. The exhibition is full of masterpieces, such as the soft and melting pocket watches of The Persistence of Memory (1931), The Great Masturbator (1929) and Mae West’s room, shown in the Dalí museum in Figueres.

The Suñol Foundation celebrates its fifth anniversary with a new exhibition of 100 works from its collection, 30 of which have never been seen before. The exhibition combines works from Catalan artists such as Joan Miró, Jaume Plensa, Antoni Tàpies and Salvador Dalí, with others by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Man Ray and Alighiero Boetti, among others.

The permanent collection of the Can Framis Museum, located in a functionalist venue built three years ago, reopened its doors this Saturday. The museum, run by the Fundació Vila Casas, has restructured its permanent collection of contemporary paintings originating from the 1960’s onwards. The works are by various artists born or living in Catalonia and includes 45 new paintings, 20 of which are new acquisitions.