Portraits of the Belle Époque at CaixaForum

The years of the Belle Époque, between the Franco-Prussian War and World War I, were a time of economic growth and social change that favoured portrait painting, a genre that enjoyed a golden era despite the recent invention of photography.

The exhibition “Portraits of the Belle Époque“, showing at CaixaForum until 9 October, takes you back to the years of optimism and good living that also saw major upheavals in the art world.

Up to three different generations of painters portrayed society figures and scenes of the period, using styles that ranged from Realism through to Impressionism and Expressionism. You’ll find works by up to forty different artists in the exhibition.

The portrait genre developed from a static pose to being a symbolic representation, often including the surroundings in which the subject was being portrayed. Types of portrait included group scenes, usually families.

Nobles, the bourgeoisie, writers and also anonymous people feature in the paintings on display in the exhibition, many of which were commissions for the artists, who had the task of trying to convey the subject’s character on canvas.

Giovanni Boldini and John Singer Sargent specialised in painting society portraits, but other artists, whose work is displayed here, such as Joaquim Sorolla, painted the ordinary people around them.

Toulouse-Lautrec in particular was fond of painting anonymous characters from the Paris streets and cabarets, while towards the end of the Belle Époque, paintings by Egon Schiele and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner reflect the widespread feeling of loneliness and despair as the Great War approached.

The exhibition gathers together over seventy works, including pieces by Edvard Munch, Oskar Kokoschka, Ramon Casas and Hermen Anglada-Camarasa.

All Barcelona Museums with one single ticket

Imagine a city where you can see one of the most impressive Romanesque art collections and historical paintings that describe the Mediterranean countries during Middle Ages,  and then, just walking ten minutes you are on a modern building featuring an exceptionally comprehensive collection of works by Joan Miró. But don’t stop there. Continue dreaming about a gothic palace where nobles and knights have been replaced by Pablo Picasso works, a city where buildings seem a quarry or even a dragon…

 Now open your eyes. Welcome to Barcelona !!!

U232 Hotel invites you to discover it on an Art Weekend package, which includes:

• 2 nights stay at our U232 Hotel in Barcelona (on a single, double, triple or family room)
• Breakfast in the exclusive U232 buffet restaurant
• Welcome drink in the U232 bar (1 per person)
• 1 Art Ticket per person that entitle you to visit:
  • Museu Picasso: Picasso lived key years in Barcelona – those of his apprenticeship as an artist. He established and maintained strong links to the city throughout his life and it was here where he wanted his museum to be.
  • Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya: MNAC has the best known display of Romanesque frescoes in the whole of Europe, unique both for the quantity and for the quality of the works on show.
  • Fundació Joan Miró: The Foundation holds an exceptionally comprehensive collection of works by Joan Miró.
  • Centre Cultural Caixa Catalunya  – La Pedrera by Antoni Gaudí: Visit the most famous building bythe most famous architect in Barcelona.
  • Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona: One of the largests collections of Contemporary Art in Europe, in a building by Richard Meier.
  • Fundació Antoni Tàpies
  • Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona

Book now your Art Weekend in Barcelona and discover all the museums of the city !!!

Miró & Dupin: Art & Poetry

The poet Jacques Dupin is responsible for one of the most important works on Joan Miró. The book, written in 1961, bears witness to the relationship between Miró and Dupin, who also shared the same poetic universe.

The exhibition “Miró – Dupin. Art and Poetry” apart from documenting this relationship, also shows the interest Miró had in the work of other poets. At the same time it reveals the links Dupin had with other creators, and it features many drawins by Joan Miró done before 1948; part of his private library and some books illustrated by Joan Miró on his early years.

An interesting part of the exhibit shows the relationship Miró had in Paris with poets and writers such as Rimbaud and Apollinaire. It also features many books, poems and manuscripts by Jacques Dupin illustrated by Joan Miró and many letters, photographs and models for their joint collaborations.

Fundació Joan Miró collection currently comprises over 14,000 pieces: 217 paintings, 178 sculptures, 9 textiles, 4 ceramics, the almost complete graphic works and some 8,000 drawings; and it is considered the best collection of Joan Miró works.

Joan Miró, a man deeply rooted in his homeland but with a worldwide reputation, has also left part of his creation available to Barcelona citizens and visitors: a giant ceramic mural at Terminal 2 of the Airport, part of the pavement in La Rambla or the sculpture “Dona i Ocell” (Woman and Bird) on the park that bears his name, just next to Plaza Espanya.

B-Hotel in Plaza Espanya is a perfect location where to start a Miró Tour in Barcelona.

More inf@:  Fundació Joan Miró

Seduced by Kees Van Dongen.

The “Kees Van Dongen” exhibition, which has also been shown in Montreal and Monaco and is now on at Barcelona’s Museu Picasso until 27 September, takes the artist, regarded as one of the best representatives of fauvism, out of this oblivion.

In fact, the artist’s more interesting works were painted long before. It was in Paris that the leitmotif which would continue throughout the subsequent phases in his artistic development first appeared: women.

First, he drew them, with strokes reminiscent of Toulouse-Lautrec’s style, and began to show a special interest in prostitutes, cabaret performers, dancers and circus artists. The world of popular arts was the only thing that interested Van Dongen, who shunned the great traditional themes of painting.

Eroticism and female seduction, the central themes of his paintings, combined with the painting’s material, colours and strokes, especially during Van Dongen’s fauvist phase. It led him, in the end, into the fold of the German expressionist group, Die Brücke.

Even the exotic element he found in his trips to Spain and Egypt is expressed in his women’s portraits: belly dancers, mulatto women and Seville dancers all feature in Van Dongen’s prolific creations.

Later on, the artist stylised his models, to satisfy his clients with more slender figures. Nevertheless, you only need look at the Tango of the Archangel to see the provocative element remained.

Exposició Kees Van Dongen | From 11/06/2009 to 27/09/2009
Museu Picasso: C Montcada, 15 – Ciutat Vella

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