Treasures

Selection of the most outstanding works of the Museum's collection

By Museu d'Art Jaume Morera

Museu d'Art Jaume Morera

Doña Juana la Loca (1877/1877) by Francisco Pradilla OrtizMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Realism

The representation of the world at the turn of the 20th century

Francisco Pradilla dedicated and gave this study to Jaume Morera, probably during the years that they shared as art scholarship holders. It is considered that this is the second sketch of the work, a study of colour and preliminary elements which will then be defined with great precision in the final work.

Paisaje de Holanda (1884/1884) by Carlos de HaesMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Beside the great compositions presented in official contests, Haes retained many studies painted during his field trips. This is the case of this landscape where the typical Dutch windmill becomes a simple anecdote giving prominence to nature and its changing states.

Picos de Najarra. Guadarrama (1891/1897) by Jaume Morera GalíciaMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

In search of light and scenes concordant with his artistic interests, Jaume Morera became interested in the winter of Sierra de Guadarrama. The discovery of the snowy landscapes allowed him to incorporate to his work a romantic rooted drama which became quite a distinguishing feature

View of Toledo (1911/1911) by Aureliano de Beruete MoretMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

In this work, Beruete uses the impressionist triangle of secondary colours coming from an accurate use of complementary colours. This is combined with an almost pointillist technique to represent a slight mist, rendered by applying white points into the blue sky.

Peacock (1900/1900) by Carles Llobet BusquetsMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Modernisme and modern times

New tastes for a new century

Carles Llobet was one of the outstanding designers of the tile imitation with papier mâché of Hermenegildo Miralles' workshop. This 40-tile piece is paired with another one —also designed by Llobet— that Casa Miralles presented to the Paris Exhibition of 1900. Later on, a 30-tile frame made of the same material was added in order to protect it.

Untitled. Drawing of a man (1899/1899) by Joaquim Mir TrinxetMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

This is to the illustration that Joaquim Mir made for the tale "The Three Travellers" published in Hispania magazine's 8th issue. Mir had a clear preference for poor characters of the surroundings of Barcelona, true archetypes of this phase of his artistic career.

Gipsy family (1912/1912) by Gonzalo Bilbao MartínezMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Gypsy women, exotic beings with a quaint way of living, captivated Gonzalo Bilbao. In this case, portrays a basket carrier that moves with her family, defining a work which reveals his mastery of light, which flows from the landscape glimpsed through the branches of the great tree from the background.

Idilio / Italiana (1912/1912) by Xavier Gosé RoviraMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

La Ricitos (1912/1912) by Baldomer Gili i RoigMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

This is one of the most successful works of the traditionalist period of Gili Roig, focused on the reproduction of archetypal figures of folk painting of Castilian tradition, in a way that clearly contrasts with the major themes of the Catalan paintings in the first quarter of the 20th century.

Arianne (1913/1913) by Xavier Gosé RoviraMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Una gaviota (1910/1914) by Cecilio Pla GallardoMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

This portrait shows the direction that takes Pla's painting, much more receptive to the needs of the Mediterranean light and a freer treatment of the figures. Pla uses the dress of the woman to exalt the contrast between light and shadow, repeated by placing her face to the vertex confluence of lighting areas of the picture.

Female nude by Josep Biosca BioscaMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

This artwork, which Biosca donated to the Museum in 1983, exemplifies the artist's concern for the treatment and articulation of the masses of the naked body of the woman. The simplification of forms refers to the Classicist severity to express a state of reverie, serene and intimate at once.

Abisme (1904/1905) by Baldomer Gili i RoigMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

In 1903, Gili i Roig won Joan Llusà's decorative panel contest with this painting, a parable about the consequences of lust and a frivolous life formalized into a symbolist allegory, a variant of the characteristic eclecticism of his pictorial production of that time.

Barriada d'Horta o Lliris blancs (1912/1912) by Antoni Samarra TuguesMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Virgen con niño (1904/1904) by Jaume Morera GalíciaMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Zapatero moro (1933/1933) by Miquel Viladrich VilaMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

New artistic approaches

The avant-garde

In 1932, Viladrich made a trip to Morocco. The result was a series of 30 paintings of Sephardic themes and crafts, marked by the artist's taste for realism and meticulous detail, combined with a symbolist and primitive air at the same time.

Cosa lírica (de l'aire a l'aire) (1933/1933) by Leandre Cristòfol PeralbaMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Based on the expressive possibilities of the clock spring unfolding in space, this work is part of the preparatory piece that Cristòfol publicly presented in Lleida in 1933 and opened his transit through non-figurative facets.

Diari d'un psicoanalista (1935/1935) by Antoni Garcia LamollaMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

This work reflects a subversive approach compared to the previous production of Antoni Garcia Lamolla, although it had no continuity. The work includes a piece of newspaper as a generator and articulator, something absolutely new, which in turn sanctioned the revolutionary intrusion of reality amid painting.

L'espectre de les tres gràcies dins l'aura subtil (1935/1936) by Antoni Garcia LamollaMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Considerada la mejor obra surrealista de Lamolla, estamos no sólo ante una de las obras más importantes de la fase surrealista de su autor, sino también una de las mejores manifestaciones de este movimiento de vanguardia en Catalunya.

Tubercul incúbic tot esperant l'hora seca (1936/1936) by Antoni Garcia LamollaMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Organic forms —surely inspired by the sculptures of Hans Arp— lay on a very simple imaginary landscape. The mass in the center adopts a gesture almost human while remaining seated in a bucket under a sort of canopy, consisting of another biomorphic hanging form. This vision of puzzling reality appeals to dreams and is expressed with great lyricism, while freeing itself from any superfluous ornamentation.

Morfologia (1940/1940) by Leandre Cristòfol PeralbaMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Leandre Cristòfol's "Morfologies" state the beginning of a non figurative period marked by the development of two-dimensional oniric shapes, which eventually found themselves replaced by objectual works.

Anticipació òntica (1939/1939) by Leandre Cristòfol PeralbaMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Made during the Spanish Civil War, "Ontic anticipation" is an assemblage of great lyricism that reveals apparently oblivious to the convulsion that defined the time of its creation.

Harmonia estel·lar (ralentí) (1957/1957) by Leandre Cristòfol PeralbaMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

This work hangs from a mechanism formed by two wires. One was previously coiled, so when recovering the initial state it generated a movement that curled the other thread, and so on. The result surpassed the idea of Alexander Calder’s mobile and stood in the field of continuous and constant motion, so that these works by Leandre Cristòfol have been considered an unmistakable precedent of kinetic art in Catalonia.

Garbes (1951/1951) by Josep Benseny PiñolMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Between the post war period and the Spanish transition to democracy

From informalism to the proposals of the end of the century

At the beginning, the sky and clouds starred Benseny paintings. However, in this artwork the sheaves' lines replace the movement of the clouds, reaching a certain deformation of the landscape overview, which responds to a constant spiritual subjectivism always present in the painting and in the artist's mood.

Lichen on rock (1960/1960) by Antoni Sirera GenéMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

In the late 50s Ton Sirera began a work based on the macro-photography of the elements of nature. These became milestones of the Catalan Informalism, a movement in which Sirera participated almost in a paradoxical way, as photography is usually a "realistic" means of representation.

Ovals (1959/1959) by Lluís Trepat PadróMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

This series is the more coherent, abstract, and personal among Lluís Trepat's works. It is the culmination of a creative evolution process which started in 1956 and the milestone from which the artist would gradually return to figurative painting.

Amersfoort (1955/1963) by Jaume Minguell MiretMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Some elements of this painting, such as the treatment of the boat's flooring and the reflection of the houses on the water of the channel are clearly a prelude to the informalist stage of Jaume Minguell, initiated by Grup Cogul (1964-1965).

Untitled (1959/1959) by Víctor Pérez PallarésMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

After his stay in Paris, Víctor Pérez Pallarés was freed from the weight of symbolism to make way for an intense dialogue between the stain and the signs that the spontaneous gesture leaves on the paper, abandoning any figurative references until a later stadium in his career.

Untitled (1964/1964) by Albert Vives IglesiasMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

This is a very significant example of Albert Vives’ work during the final stage of his membership of Grup Cogul. It reveals a clear interest in matter and texture, and specifically relates to the changes that occur within Informalism in the early sixties.

Untitled (1967/1967) by Ernest Ibàñez NeachMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Witness of the evolution of Ibàñez's work after the disbandment of Grup Cogul (1965), this artwork is still engaged within the Informalist parameters, although the experiments with collage and colour suggest the influence of a new aesthetic, tending towards Pop Art.

Dialèctica interior II (1969/1969) by Leandre Cristòfol PeralbaMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Around the seventies, Leandre Cristòfol was fully immersed in a truly experimental stage. Hence arose in the series "Dialèctica interior", made of structure-like artworks that can be turned into monuments.

Perclorur punt i seguit (1977/1977) by Benet Rossell SanuyMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Benet Rosell's artistic language is rooted in the study of Far Eastern calligraphy and ideogram alphabets, which he renders in an acid-burnt medium.

Winston Churchill (1981/1981) by Nicolás Martínez LageMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

Niko was a doctor with artistic vocation that dedicated himself to "carigrafia" , an approach to psychological portraits based on a simplified and schematic definition of external and internal aspects of the personality of the portrayed, a concept very close to the historical avant-garde portraiture.

S.T. (triptych) (1982/1985) by Àngel Jové JovéMuseu d'Art Jaume Morera

In the 80s, Àngel Jové returned to painting although maintaining an essentially photographic conception of the work and the chromatism, while the load of symbolic elements mixed with poetic and disturbing characters or scenery becomes increasingly heightened.

Credits: Story

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The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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