Ninety years after the tribute exhibition that Sala Parés hosted in honour of Ricard Canals (1876-1931), the painter returns to our gallery with a new retrospective exhibition that presents a large part of his artistic evolution in a concentrated way, as well as some of his masterpieces such as Un palco en los toros (1904), Le Bar (1909-10) or the portraits of Benedetta Bianco (1870-1958), among others.The exhibition includes a selection that shows how Canals placed Spanish folklore at the service of pictorial experimentation and plastic approaches which, despite the apparently traditional air of the themes, are always formulated in a thoroughly modern manner. It also focuses on Canals’s facet as an extraordinary draughtsman, without neglecting the success he achieved as a portraitist in Barcelona – where he settled permanently in 1906 after a long stay in Paris – and his sporadic immersion in landscape painting.Ricard Canals (1876-1931) and his time is an exhibition that sets Canals’ work in context, proposing links and comparisons with other contemporary artists, with some of whom the painter established personal relationships and/or affinities. Other artists such as Isidre Nonell, Joaquim Sunyer, Pere Ysern Alié, Joan Cardona, Ramon Pichot and Marià Pidelasera, among many others, meet and dialogue with the work of one of the Catalan painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who achieved the greatest success in markets such as Paris and New York.

After more than a decade without exhibiting his work in Barcelona, Dis Berlin comes back to the city to present his first solo exhibition at Sala Parés. The exhibition will show works from the last few years of the artist’s production. Following the conceptual line of Dis Berlin’s latest exhibitions in Madrid, the exhibition will revolve around the idea of the search for new mysteries that take on different forms, configuring true pictorial enigmas constructed by and for contemplation.All of them are grouped under the tension between opposites such as absence-presence or music-silence. This struggle is generated and strengthened by the combination of discordant elements and, as Raúl Eguizábal points out about Dis Berlin’s recent work, it is “a struggle between the sacred and the profane, between the celestial and the telluric, between the spiritual and the sensual. Objects appear with an almost voluptuous fullness, the smoke of volcanoes, clouds and even flowers take on fleshiness and are confronted with lights that seem to conceal a revelation or a promise”.

After exhibitions such as “Paris a Parés. À la recherche de la Ville Lumière” (2018), “Salons at Can Parés (1884-1930)” (2019) and “Travellers (1877-1950)” (2021), among others, this year’s extraordinary exhibition is dedicated to the representation of the figure and how creators who moved in different styles and languages understood and represented the human body. The exhibition starts from the founding date of Sala Parés as an art gallery (1877) and unfolds over a hundred years in a journey made up of a selection of works for sale from important private collections and from the gallery’s own holdings.The figure is the guiding thread of the exhibition, which presents some of the most paradigmatic cases of artists related to the Sala Parés over the course of a century. The group of works illustrates very different lines of expression: from the figure as the result of a careful study of nature, to the free and subjective figure that emerges spontaneously; from its conception based on colour and chiaroscuro, to the use of the rigorous line and academic drawing; from Fortuny-rooted preciosist realism, to the delicacy of symbolist portraiture; from the integration of the figure in the neo-Romantic landscape, to the relevance it occupies in fin-de-siècle anecdotism; from the figures of Parisian bohemianism to the return to Cézannian schemes and Noucentista Mediterraneanism; from the decomposition of the body as a result of avant-garde languages to the rediscovery of realism; or from volumetric forcefulness to the purity and sensuality of the body, as well as other particular visions of the figure, either as the main subject or as a complement and even an excuse.

Josep Roca-Sastre (1928-1997) es uno de los artistas más relevantes del realismo en la Cataluña del siglo XX. El interés de su obra radica en haberse convertido en una de las expresiones más personales de la figuración catalana, con un lenguaje y una factura absolutamente propios y reconocibles. Su personalidad pictórica fue el resultado de una búsqueda de nuevos lenguajes para representar la realidad y también fruto de una experimentación técnica basada en el juego de texturas, contrastes e incluso formatos. Esta experimentación le llevó a una recuperación progresiva de la figuración, pasada por el filtro de todas las fórmulas de las vanguardias que tanto había analizado detalladamente durante la década de los cincuenta.La cotidianidad se erigió como la base y referencia principal de su reflexión pictórica, su centro y principio a partir del cual desarrollar un lenguaje figurativo que interpreta más que no imita la realidad inmediata. Roca-Sastre articula sus composiciones mediante el trato depurado de la luz, la construcción geométrica de las formas del color y la utilización densa, textura y personal de la materia. El uso de la fragmentación y la aproximación personal entorno al objeto son clave en la expresividad y originalidad de su pintura.La exposición “Trascender el naturalismo” presenta una selección de obras provenientes de importantes colecciones privadas que ilustran la evolución del artista de manera concentrada, poniendo en valor algunas etapas menos conocidas de la pintura de Roca-Sastre: sus colaboraciones con Dau al Set (1952) a través de una selección de dibujos; una serie de obras que derivan de la experimentación pictórica motivada por sus estancias en París durante la década del cincuenta; las obras que desde los setenta muestran la depuración formal que llega a codificar y conseguir erigir casi como imágenes de marca como las tribunas modernistas del Ensanche barcelonés, los pasillos de hidráulicos y los bodegones verticales con cortinajes.

After two decades without exhibiting in Barcelona, Guillermo Pérez Villalta returns to Barcelona and presents his first solo exhibition at Sala Parés. The exhibition will occupy several spaces in the gallery and will show works from the last ten years of the artist’s production. Following the conceptual line of Pérez Villalta’s latest exhibitions in Madrid, the show revolves around the idea of “classicism”, a concept present in Western culture from antiquity to the present day and an object of study and analysis by the artist.Pérez Villalta deploys a language constructed from geometry, the contrast between bodies and emptiness, the meticulous study of light in space and delights in pictorial values – the brushstroke and colour “with complex mixtures and glazes of many tones to create a rarefied illumination”. His painting is more abstract in its meaning or interpretation, diminishing the symbolic evocation of the subjects depicted: perspectives pushed to the limit, combined vanishing points, fantastic geometries, reinterpretations, ideal cities, dreamlike visions and metaphysical atmospheres. Some are of an artistic nature (the pleasures of culture, beauty, the classical and the contemporary, abstraction and figuration, the real and the imagined, truth and verisimilitude); others of a personal nature (reason and feeling, individual and collective, masculine and feminine, love and sex, solitude and company); and of a spiritual or philosophical order (sacred and profane, religions, rites, myths, beliefs, allegories, dreams). And like a shadow that covers everything, transience, eternity, melancholy at the passing of time.

Professor of Contemporary Art, Art of the 19th century and Catalan Art.

El viaje fue una de las prácticas más habituales de los artistas modernos. El anhelo por incorporar nuevos temas, ambientes y realidades fue clave en la evolución artística catalana desde la segunda mitad del siglo XIX. Los creadores buscaban las tendencias en auge, poder contemplarlas en directo, interactuar con artistas de éxito dentro del circuito internacional y, en algunos casos, hacerse un hueco en otros mercados artísticos como el de París, Roma o Madrid, tanto a través de los salones (los oficiales y/o los de carácter más alternativo) como de las galerías. Hemos de entender el viaje como un aprendizaje artístico en él mismo, así como una experiencia vital que abrió la puerta a una gran cantidad de posibilidades expresivas diferentes.La luz del sur y la fantasía árabe; las excursiones para captar con verismo la vida rural o el viaje como portal para la introspección y la reflexión; la vida bohemia parisina, el simbolismo y la estética de los años veinte; la conexión con fórmulas pictóricas de las primeras vanguardias o los nuevos lugares como cantera para reinventar la figuración. El viaje se convierte en el leitmotiv de la exposición donde presentamos algunos de los casos más paradigmáticos de artistas viajeros relacionados con Sala Parés durante finales del siglo XIX y la primera mitad del siglo XX, con ejemplos paradigmáticos y obras a la venta provenientes de importantes colecciones privadas, muchas de ellas inéditas.

Ramon Calsina Baró (1901-1992) is one of the most enigmatic artists of the 20th century. His interest lies in the personality of his work, which is easily recognisable, unique and distinctive. Calsina's production stands out for the attractiveness and suggestiveness of its themes, for the hidden meaning and open messages which, like a game or a riddle, are posed and challenge the viewer. Surprise and initial incomprehension characterise most of his drawings and canvases which, as if they were cryptic enigmas or painted metaphors, are shaped by compositions in which the stylisation of what is represented alternates with the use of caricatures and pictorial hyperbole in a generally realistic environment. Contrast, deformation, decontextualisation and animation of objects and diverse elements in favour of mystery and surprise. This combination of resources is the formula with which Calsina constructed form and content, as well as his own iconography and universe, which place him outside any group or artistic trend of his time.The exhibition 'CALSINA'S UNIVERSE' presents a selection of works, many of them from important private collections, which illustrate the artist's evolution.

The current exhibition is the prolongation of an initiative recovered by Sala Parés in 2017 due to the commemoration of its 140th anniversary. It is about rediscovering its roots, studying and highlighting them through academic researches and exhibition projects illustrating different episodes of its history.In previous exhibitions such as “MEMORIA 140 anys” (2017), “París a Parés. À la recherche de la Ville Lumière ”(2018) and “Salons a Can Parés (1884-1930)” (2019), various questions about the gallery were developed as well as its operation during its widespread trajectory, the schools and artistic trends represented on its walls, the relevance for the Catalan artists of travelling to significant cities as Paris, the showing phenomenon of salons or artistic and cultural associations, among others.In this instance we dedicate this year’s distinguished exhibition to the crucial pictorial genre of modern Catalan painting: landscaping. We propose a journey through one hundred years starting from the foundational date of the Sala Parés as an art gallery (1877). The expository yarn is made up of a selection of artworks from the gallery’s collection, as well as significant private collections.From the romantic landscape to the unquestionable commercial success of the realistic revolution of Ramon Martí i Alsina; from the precious anecdote integrated into urban views to the mystery and solitude of Modest Urgell’s cemeteries; from the Escola d’Olot to the luminism of Sitges; from the slumming landscapes of the “Colla del Safrà” to the poetry of the Jardines de España by Santiago Rusiñol; from the Noucentista’s containment to the reassessment of the group of “Evolucionistas”.

The exhibition is organized around a central piece, an artwork by the painter Montserrat Casanova Puigserinall (1909-1990). This is Niño (1929), a child portrait part of the synthesism of all the Catalan figurative artists of the thirties. Casanova’s work is linked to the aesthetics of authors such as Josep de Togores, Pere Pruna, Joaquim Sunyer or Josep Mompou. Like these creators, Casanova is committed to soft and pastel chromatisms developed in a flat and synthetic way on the surfaces and objects represented. The greens, pinks and blues melt through almost aqueous and diluted brushstrokes that generate harmoniously combined passages and layers of colour. The chromatic transitions are placid and pleasant and tend to lyricism.We propose a dialogue between the work of this woman painter and a set of pieces that illustrates the artistic environment in which she participated. Painter among painters, Montserrat Casanova managed to be one of the most recognized female artists of the thirties of Catalonia.

The importance of the Fine Arts Exhibitions of the Sala Parés in the history of the Barcelona art market and the cultural life of the late nineteenth century is indisputable. Its success is explained by the absence of official competitions in the city – the National Exhibitions were held only in Madrid and the General Exhibitions of Barcelona began in 1891. From a typological point of view, these samples of Can Parés, begun in 1884, followed the essence of the halls of Paris – both the officers and the alternatives – although without a jury or awards. The objective was clear: to expose the most amazing works of the most valued artists.“Salons a Can Parés (1884-1930)” consists of a selection of artworks, some of them unpublished, from important private collections. The exhibition develops a chronological account whose main thread is these Extraordinary Fine Arts Exhibitions, held in the gallery from the inauguration of the large hall (1884) until 1901 – date of the eighteenth and final edition -, passing through other choral samples of associations Artistic Barcelona and, finally, the three Autumn Salons held at the beginning of the Maragall stage (1926, 1927 and 1928).

Pere Gastó i Vilanova (1908-1997) is an artist who, even today, continues without leaving anyone indifferent. Adored by few and misunderstood by many, he is a special and unique painter. Gastó was able to generate his own language based on the deep study of the human figure and psyche. His artwork evolved from realism to personal formal codes that draw from several sources of the Central European expressionism. He established a magical, dreamlike and sometimes ghostly connection with the depths of the human soul. His pictorial approaches revolve around the understanding of the dualities of humans, transcendent themes such as Beauty, Death and Dreaming or the transformation of everyday reality.The exhibition PERE GASTÓ. ‘The unfinished being’, curated by Sergio Fuentes Milà, PhD in History of Art, presents selected artworks, most of them unpublished, illustrating the evolution of the artist. You will be able to admire its different facets, from a first figuration where the luminous work is treated masterfully, until the achievement of new formal codes that define his famous ‘actors’ and the aesthetics and enigma of the ‘unfinished human’.

Josep Maria Jujol's (1879-1949) vision of architecture gave importance to colour as an experimentation without limits or precedents. Precisely, colour became his most identifying and personal sign. His ability and daring in the use of colour is the main theme of the exhibition "Jujol. L'arquitectura del colour", the central exhibition of Jujol Year 2019, which has served to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the architect's birth. The exhibition is structured in five areas on new themes, some of them unpublished, on the figure of Jujol, his training and his creative processes.This exhibition has been organised by the Centre Jujol Can Negre, Sant Joan Despí Town Council and Barcelona Provincial Council.

During the nineteenth century, Paris had become the world capital of art. The image of the Ville Lumière was built, a mythical cityfull of opportunities, where everything that happened acquired a special aura and where the artistic production set the standard to follow all over the world. It was the greatest exponent of modernity.The presence of Catalan artists in Paris at the end of the 19th century and during the first half of the 20th century was remarkable and relevant. The creators were looking for trends in the city of the Seine, as well as finding a place in the Parisian art market through the halls and galleries, the two main platforms for the recognition and dissemination of artists and trends.Most of the artists who went to Paris looking for inspiration and pictorial experimentation came back full of new ideas and, sometimes, with executed worksto share their artistic evolution to the barcelonian public. Some of them were linked to Sala Parés, which became one of the most privileged place to appreciate what the Catalans artists living in Paris produced. This presentation of the noveltyreinforced the life and activity of the gallery for several decades."París in Parés" aims to highlight the importance of the gallery in the introduction of pictorial modernity in Catalonia in some of its stages and through its most common historical exhibitions and artists.It is a journey whose story is constructed with a selection of paradigmatic cases: from the realistic artists and the anecdotist painting, to the almost experiential art of the bohemian Montmartre, the avant-garde between the wars and the return to the figuration as a traditional character. In all cases, the Catalans play à la recherche de la Ville Lumière.

"CIUDADES LÍQUIDAS" is an Art Exhibition which presents the latest artworks by Joseba Sánchez Zabaleta, Alejandro Quincoces, Albert Vidal and Gorka García Herrera. The project is based on the transformation of urban landscapes and the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman's reflections on "liquid modernity".

The exhibition "MEMÒRIA. 140 ANYS" celebrates 140 years of Sala Parés as the oldest gallery in Spain. Works by Ramon Casas, Santiago Rusiñol, Joaquim Mir, Ricard Canals, Modest Urgell, Josep Cusachs, among many others.

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of the modernist painter Ramón Casas, the Círculo del Liceo opened its doors to present in an unprecedented and unique exhibition, the muse of the painter, Julia Peraire.