Catalonia, cradle of the avant-garde
Little remains of Greek and Roman antiquity. The earliest evidence unearthed in Catalonia are the rock paintings at El Perelló, El Cogul and Ulldecona. The presence of the Greeks was short-lived and geographically limited, so few remains remain, with the exception of the sites of Empúries and Roses in north-eastern Catalonia. The city of Tarraco (later Tarragona) is the best example of Roman colonization in the region. Catalonia is best known for its 20th-century art.
The beginning of the 20th century
Noucentisme. At the beginning of this century, the Noucentisme movement led by artists Josep Clarà, Josep Obiols, Joaquim Sunyer and Xavier Nogués, who advocated a return to the classical and Mediterranean origins of the arts, was important in Catalonia. This movement is inspired by the Italian tradition of naming the Renaissance centuries the Quattrocento, Cinquecento, etc. "Nou", in Catalan, means both the number "nine", like the year 1900, and is synonymous with renewal. Noucentisme is thus supposed to revolutionize past centuries. However, many of the great names of the avant-garde and modern painting originated in the region.
Casa Amattler. You can still visit Casa Amatller, the Barcelona home of photographer, chocolatier and collector Antoni Amatller Costa. This Catalan Modernist building, designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch in 1898, was commissioned by this influential Catalan figure.
Salvador Dalí (1904-1989). Salvador Dalí was born in Figueras. Eccentric, genius and provocateur - there's no shortage of adjectives to describe the personality of this surrealist painter, whether he's mad about Lanvin chocolate, his muse Gala, or whether he's erecting the Perpignan train station as the center of the world. Whether ironic visions of reality or hallucinatory, his works are born of the technique of investigating the irrational through delirium, known as the "paranoid-critical method". He was one of the precursors of Surrealism.
Joan Miró (1893-1983) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Joan Miró was born in Barcelona. The latter spent his early years in the Barri Gòtic, as did Picasso, who, before moving to Paris in 1900, spent time there on Rue d'Avinyo, rubbing shoulders with the Catalan underworld to which he dedicated Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Miró and Picasso both attended the Escola de Belles Arts de la Llotja at different times. They would later meet during their various stays in Paris. The Picasso Museum in Barcelona, inaugurated in 1963, bears witness to the importance of this Catalan passage for Picasso, who was just beginning his career as an artist. Under Franco, Miró, who had broken with Surrealism, moved to Palma de Mallorca and then to Barcelona, where, during the Second World War, he defined the foundations of his personal style and the definitive themes of his work. Many of his drawings, with their sober, bare lines, bear the title La Femme Oiseau Étoile (The Star Bird Woman). He also painted several series of canvases, sometimes without an easel. The mood of his paintings is dull and sad, and one can sense the roar of war. In 1975, the year of Franco's death, the Miró Foundation was inaugurated in Montjuïc, and he created works in public spaces: a mosaic on La Rambla in 1976, and the sculptures in Miró Park in 1983.
Fauvism. Not far away, on the coast at Collioure in French Catalonia, French painters Henri Matisse and André Derain, along with other artists, created Fauvism in 1905. And in 1911, another French painter, Georges Braque, visited several times by Picasso, settled in Céret in the Vallespir region. From Paris, artist Juan Gris and art dealer Max Jacob also stayed here in 1913. The town was abuzz with activity. Art critic André Salmon dubbed the city the "Mecca of Cubism". From 1916 onwards, other artists from Montparnasse and La Ruche, notably Chaïm Soutine and Marc Chagall, also settled here. The First World War broke out and the Catalan capital became a land of exile for other Montparnasse artists, such as Francis Picabia, Marie Laurencin, Sonia and Robert Delaunay. But in 1936, the Spanish Civil War forced many artists into exile, including Dalí, who traveled throughout Europe, and the Catalan sculptor Apel-les Fenosa, an anarchist sympathizer who settled in Paris.
The transition with the Catalan contemporary art
Antoni Tàpies. After the war, in 1948, the magazine and neo-Dadaist movement Dau al Set (in Catalan: Dé sur le sept), founded by Tàpies, attempted to awaken Spain from its intellectual inertia. Tàpies, who also broke with Surrealism, went on to enjoy an international career. In 1949, he met Joan Miró, who had a strong influence on him, as did Paul Klee during his first Surrealist period. Tàpies opted for abstraction and, long before Arte Povera, agglomerated organic plant materials, earth and stone debris onto his canvases. Thus, from 1953 onwards, he added clay and marble powder to his painting, using torn paper, rope and rags, for example in Gris et Vert, 1957. Dalí returned to Catalonia with Gala and continued his work. He built a theater-museum to his own glory in Figueras in 1974.
Spanish daily life in the 1960s has been extensively documented by Ricard Terré and Ramon Masats, who met at the AFAL agency in 1958. They went on to enjoy international careers as photojournalists. Ricard Terré returned to photography after a long period of silence to continue his series of images of the region's religious celebrations. As for Ramon Masats, he criss-crossed Spain and the rest of the world to bring back the best shots.
The 2000s
Jaume Plensa. Born in 1955, sculptor Jaume Plensa is one of Catalonia's most important contemporary artists. Creating monumental heads or huge seated figures in metal, marble, alabaster, glass, wood or cement, he sometimes incorporates Shakespearean verses into the structures of his works. Heir to the pop art movement, he works all over the world, but although the city has devoted several exhibitions to him, he has never created a permanent work in Barcelona's public space.
Since its creation in 2003, the LOOP festival has become a must for video art enthusiasts and professionals alike. Every year, in the second half of May, the city is literally flooded with audiovisual creations. Video art is exhibited in many of the city's galleries, as well as in bars, boutiques, hotel rooms and more. As a result, Barcelona has become a benchmark in the European audiovisual panorama.
Street art and arty neighborhoods
In Barcelona, the Raval district, where skateboarders gather to practice their sport, is taken over by local and international graffiti artists, creating large-scale, committed murals. Catalans Chanoir, Andrea Btoy, Debens, Jafet Blanch, Fasim, Grito, Mina Hamada, Sawe, Zosen and Eos are also part of the trip, with their logo graffiti, stencils and acid oil paint. They live in the Catalan capital and are Barcelona's graffiti ambassadors abroad. Mostly anonymous, they sometimes work with permits or at night when the city is asleep.
To help you find your way around Barcelona's arty spots, most contemporary art galleries are located in the Eixample district, with a heavy concentration in carrer Consell de Cent. Galerie ProjecteSD, run by Silvia Dauder, is a case in point. It specializes in contemporary photography and video. A few yards away is the Marlborough mega-gallery, which also has branches in Madrid, Monaco, Chelsea and Florida. Historically centered on German Expressionism and originally a mid-twentieth-century British label, it features exhibitions by leading international artists. Galeria Estrany de la Mota is also worth a visit, for its Spanish and foreign artists, as well as for its gigantic, cave-like space.
If you want to discover new talent, take a stroll through the narrow streets of the Born district. Finally, the bars of the Gracia district are an inexhaustible source of young talent. Many cafés, bars and concert halls double as exhibition halls, so keep an eye out: this could be your chance to pick up an artistic souvenir for a bargain. Many arts associations have sprung up in the last five years. However, rents are rising in the city center, and some contemporary art galleries and many artists are moving to L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, a post-industrial town on Barcelona's outskirts, where gentrification is in full swing. It is the second most populous city in the Catalan region. The Nogueras Blanchard gallery showcases well-known artists as well as their own work, to tempt visitors and collectors alike. So why not visit the province's studios and exhibitions, and take the pulse of ultra-contemporary creation. The equivalent of Paris suburbs like Pantin and Romainville, for example, which are bursting with vitality.
Finally, ideal for street photography, Penelles is a village of just 500 inhabitants, a two-hour drive from Barcelona. In recent years, its graffiti-covered walls have become a veritable temple to street art. The town council is behind the project, and since 2015 it has been funding the work of over fifty graffiti artists from all over the world to turn the houses into veritable tableaux. There's one graffiti per inhabitant! Catalan and Spanish artists have left their mark, as have artists from all over Europe.
Barcelona's new contemporary art museum, MOCO, is due to open in 2021. It will feature works by Banksy, Basquiat, Andy Warhol and Keith Haring.
Some contemporary Barcelona artists
Antoni Muntadas (1942). Barcelona-based Antoni Muntadas is one of the most internationally recognized video artists. His works hijack television images and criticize hyper-consumption. He also uses performance, installations, photography, multimedia, books, the Internet and public art to respond to the major political and social issues of our time.
Joan Fontcuberta (1955). A native of Barcelona at heart, contemporary artist Joan Fontcuberta, who created the official portrait of pilot-cosmonaut Iván Istochnikov in 1968, uses this medium to create truly hypnotic tableaux. A star of contemporary art today, Fontcuberta is also a theorist, specializing in the history of photography and information science.
Jordi Colomer (1962). Based between Barcelona and New York, Jordi Colomer is also a popular artist, who enjoyed success in the 1990s. He creates architectural models based on real buildings and photographs them in their original context. He also shoots fiction films, often improvised by actors, which he projects onto several screens. He represented his country by making a collective installation with several artists featuring architectural drawings on cardboard at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. This biennial event was a consecration for the artist.
