ART CITIES:Barcelona-A Short Century,MACBA Collection

The Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) opened to the public on 28/11/1995. Since then, it has forged an international reputation as a model in the field of contemporary art: the substantial growth of its collection now makes it possible to chart a path through the principal references of the art of our times, while the lines of work it has developed have positioned it as a key centre for research and reflection on artistic activity.

By Efi MIchalarou
Photo: MACBA Archive

In 1929 Barcelona hosted the International Exposition. Mies van der Rohe, in collaboration with Lilly Reich, designed the German Pavilion, otherwise known as “Barcelona Pavilion”. On the initiative of Josep lluís Sert and Josep Torres i Clavé, the GATCPAC (Group of Catalan Architects and Technicians for the Progress of Contemporary Architecture) was founded. André Breton wrote the Second Surrealist Manifesto. In Paris, a group of abstract artists led by Joaquín Torres-García and Michel Seuphor, founded Cercle et Carré. That same year, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) opened in New York. This is the cultural context that initiates the new presentation of the MACBA Collection. The exhibition “A Short Century: MACBA Collection” seeks to reflect perspective from Barcelona, hence its beginning in 1929 with the International Exposition. This display includes a number of key works from the Collection, in a series of rooms dedicated to the most emblematic cultural and social moments of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The exhibition opens with a room including screenprints by Anni Albers reflecting her Bauhaus period, together with important works by Alexander Calder and Joaquín Torres-García. In the presentation of the successive decades, works by Eugènia Balcells, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Christian Boltanski, Esther Ferrer, Gego, Eulàlia Grau, The Guerrilla Girls, Hans Haacke, Jenny Holzer, Sanja Iveković, Miralda, Joan Miró, Juan Muñoz, The Otolith Group, Raymond Pettibon, Benet Rossell, Joan Rabascall, Martha Rosler, Jorge Oteiza, Antoni Tàpies and Werker Collective, are included, among others. At the core of the exhibition is a room dedicated to the political context of 1968, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, and 1975, the year of Franco’s death. During these years, Catalan artists explored satirical and politicised Pop and Conceptualism, either in clandestine forms or as exiles in Paris and New York. The work of artists such as Miralda, Joan Rabascall and Eulalia Grau is placed in dialogue with their international peers, who are also represented through the examination of urban space. The impact of feminism from the 1970s onwards, and identity politics from the 1980s on, is told through important works, including Jenny Holzer’s “Inflammatory Essays” and Jean Michel Basquiat’s iconic paintings “King Zulu” (1986) and “Self Portrait” (1986). The 1990s are seen as a time of the examination of themes of memory and trace through the absent body in imposing sculptural or installation works by figures including Christian Boltanski and Jana Sterbak. The final rooms bring us up to date with the predicament of humanity in the era of globalisation, the capitalist system, unequal power relations and how artists have addressed immigration in their work, through the juxtaposition of images from Allan Sekula’s series “Methane for All” (2008), documenting the various waterfront industries in Barcelona, Carlos Aires’s “Black Sea” (2013) which uses fragments of wood from old boats and migrant’s vessels, and The Otolith Group’s “Hydra Decapita” (2010), acting as an epilogue.

Info: Curators: MACBA Team, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Plaça dels Àngels 1 , Barcelona, Duration: 5/10/18- , Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Fri 11:00-19:30, Sat 10:00-20:00, Sun 10:00-15:00, https://www.macba.cat