From Gaudi to Picasso
15.03.2010 - 27.06.2010
IVAM Centro Julio Gonzalez,Calle de Guillem de Castro, 118 , 46003 Valencia, Spain
Encouraged by an eager receptiveness to foreign cultural trends, the desire for modernity left a decisive mark on all forms of expression in Catalan art, from music to painting and from the graphic arts and theatre to poetry and architectureThe manifold nature of Modernisme complicates the consolidation of a stylistic unity to facilitate a historical reading. The present exhibition keeps to the essential focuses of this intense and agitated process, concentrating its view on painting and paying particular attention to the early work of Picasso and Julio Gonzalez, artists whose formative years coincided with Modernisme and who came to occupy distinguished places in the history of twentieth century painting and sculpture. Special prominence is given to the work of Gaudi, a key figure for understanding how Modernisme evolved.The fundamental influence of Paris on the movements origins is summed up in the works that Casas and Rusinol painted in that city in the early nineties and that are shown in the first rooms. They have a Late Naturalist form of expression, pointing towards a transformation of painting in terms of themes taking in playful aspects of preeminently urban modern life and style working au plein air, using free brushstrokes and compositions influenced by photography. This section concludes with a selection of portraits by Casas of artists of his own generation and the following one, who used to meet in the emblematic avantgarde tavern Els Quatre Gats in Barcelona during those years.With the second generation, the exhibition looks at the influence of the spiritualist tendency in the development of Modernisme. Partly associated with the activity of the Cercle Artistic de Sant Lluc, to which Gaudi belonged, this tendency rejected the materialist progressiveness and positivism that inspired the beginnings of the Belle Epoque and it used features of the Symbolism that spread from northern Europe to shape Modernismes most distinctive image.The spiritualist influence brought about a radicalisation of the attitude of Gaudi, whose training had been marked by the historicism of the Gothic revival. His work offers a reflection on the basic elements of traditional construction and synthesises a language of the utmost originality.Mir and Anglada made contributions of great pictorial interest and great originality to the panorama of Symbolist influence. Their work shows influences or concomitances connected with the modernism of other European centres, such as Brussels, Munich and Vienna.Enthusiasm for Modernisme dissipated rapidly in Barcelona during the first decade of the twentieth century. This decline accompanied the development of the artists of the second Modernista generation and marked their possible future contributions to avantgarde movements in the twentieth century. The great emerging figure in those years was undoubtedly Picasso. Other young artists, such as Hugue, Canals, Sunyer and the Gonzalez brothers, congregated around him, all living in Paris and known in the art circles of the French capital as la bande catalane.The last great Modernista painter was Nonell, who belonged to the same generation as Picasso and Julio Gonzalez. His work represents the clearest manifestation of miserabilism, with a succinct language that developed alongside the beginnings of Expressionism in Europe. The use of miserabilist themes spread to other artists and was of fundamental importance for the Blue Period which helped to secure Picassos place in the avantgarde. A profound change of sensibility occurred in the second half of the first decade of the twentieth century, introducing a shift towards classicism and making a clear break with Modernisme. As a result of this change, Modernisme was replaced by Noucentisme as the dominant tendency in Catalan culture during the first years of the second decade of the twentieth century. |
June 2010
