Exhibition Dates: 17 March — 21 May 2021

Colnaghi, London is delighted to present an exhibition of museum quality landscape paintings by Spanish modern masters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, opening March 17th 2021.

Spanish Modern Landscapes follows a successful introductory exhibition into the art of the period, The Golden Age of Spanish Modern Art in 2020. This second foray into the area will focus on how these artists responded to the dramatic and varied Spanish landscape as subject matter, depicting it in unique ways which pre-empt and reflect movements such as Realism, Impressionism and Symbolism.

To realise this presentation, Colnaghi (est. 1760), will collaborate once again with two of Barcelona’s most influential and venerable galleries, Sala Parés (est. 1877) and Artur Ramon Art (est. 1911), combining more than five hundred years of collective knowledge and experience. This exhibition forms part of an ongoing strategic project by the trio to bring Spanish artists from the turn of the 20th century to wider public recognition, restoring the prestige of arguably one of the best schools of painting in Europe.

Says Colnaghi Gallery’s CEO, Jorge Coll: ‘Collaborating with Artur Ramon and Sala Parés in this joint venture, we have sourced the highest quality works, with many of the landscapes presented here coming from the pinnacle of the artists output. At a time when many of us are trapped inside, these landscape paintings offer an escape into the otherworldly beauty of Spain at the end of the 19th century. We hope that this exhibition will build upon the success of The Golden Age of Spanish Modern Art last year, bringing these Spanish Modernists to wider public recognition and appreciation around the globe.’

Spanish Modern Landscapes is comprised of twenty-three works by thirteen artists. All of them trained at the art academies of Barcelona, but many were drawn to Paris, at the time the epicentre of the art world. Unlike their peers, however, who included Degas, Picasso and Dali, few are household names beyond their native Spain. This exhibition aims to build upon the growing appreciation for this Spanish group which has come following exhibitions appraising ‘Catalan Modernisme’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

For example, Nicolau Raurich’s Fangal (Lodazal), 1897, is a powerful response to the landscape of the Pontine Marshes, reflecting how the artist was inspired by Symbolism, as he plays here with light and its effects on water. This rare work comes from a pivotal moment in Raurich’s career, following which his style dramatically changed.

A more genteel aspect of the Spanish landscape is explored by Santiago Rusiñol’s Jardin de Valencia, 1912. With its bold sense of perspective, this lucid painting demonstrates the influence of Degas and Whistler upon Rusiñol’s work, as well as the time he spent studying in Paris. After returning to Spain, the artist settled in Sitges, founding the Cau Ferrat Museum, which contains the remarkable collection of ancient and modern art he acquired during his lifetime. A playwright as well as a painter, Rusiñol was as known for his plays as he was his paintings of gardens and landscapes. He died in Aranjuez in 1931, while painting its famous gardens.

Unlike the other artists in this show, Joaquín Mir never left his native Spain. Cave of Mallorca, Sa Calobra, 1903, depicts the vertiginous mountains of northern Mallorca in bold, dynamic brushstrokes. Mir is remembered for his expressive use of colour in response to both his mental health, and the varied Spanish landscape he witnessed around him. Utterly dedicated to his craft, he was injured whilst painting en plein air as he sought to capture the landscape in its rawest form. The exhibition will include a variety of top tier works by the artist.

Modest Urgell’s brooding Cemetery and church, c. 1880, shows the strong influence of the French school of Realism. We can see how the artist was inspired by Millet and Courbet through his gritty, unidealized portrayal of rural life. Dali was deeply impacted by Urgell’s work, and acquired paintings by the artist aptly from Artur Ramon during his lifetime. Most of Urgell’s works are in museum collections, and it is thus incredibly rare to have one of such quality available on the market.

Artists: Ramón Martí Alsina, Hermenegildo Anglada Camarasa, Francisco Gimeno Arasa, Laureano Barrau, Bertuzzi, Eliseo Meifren, Joaquín Mir, Francisco Pradilla Ortiz, Nicolau Raurich, Santiago Rusiñol i Prats, Josep Maria Tamburini Dalmau y Modest Urgell.

Due to Covid-19, Spanish Modern Landscapes will be open by appointment in London from March 17th, and will be accompanied by a dedicated exhibition catalogue, online viewing room and virtual reality tour. A presentation in Barcelona will follow later in Spring.

For press information please contact Albany Arts Communications:

Mark Inglefield
mark@albanyartscommunications.com
t: +44 (0) 20 78 79 88 95;
m: +44 (0) 75 84 19 95 00

Notes to Editors

About Colnaghi Gallery
Founded in 1760, Colnaghi is one of the oldest commercial art galleries in the world with a long history and a great tradition. From the late nineteenth century, Colnaghi became a leading dealership in Old Master paintings, selling masterpieces to the greatest collectors and museums of the Gilded Age, as well as a gallery with a great reputation for connoisseurship in prints and Old Master drawings. The only major commercial gallery to specialize in works of art from antiquity through to the modern era, Colnaghi now handles rare objects from the Ancient World, the finest Old Masters, and Modern masterpieces. With galleries and specialists in London, New York, and Madrid, Colnaghi is proud to offer our clients expert advice, a very high level of service and an exciting programme of exhibitions and events.

Colnaghi’s exhibitions showcase the finest Old Masters, Ancient and Modern works of art. Past exhibitions have included a temporary gallery space in Venice for the 58th Biennale, which provided a contemporary interpretation of the Grand Tour for the 21st century traveller. Colnaghi London’s past exhibitions have presented opportunities to cross collect from an array of diverse categories and to juxtapose contemporary art and the Old Masters. Our planned forthcoming exhibitions in London and New York will continue to include paintings, drawings, sculpture and antiquities of the highest quality, from across the globe.

Over its 260-year history, Colnaghi has grown and developed in response to changing times. In 2017, Colnaghi New York was reopened under the new Directorship of Carlos A. Picón, longtime curator of Greek and Roman art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2019, art curator and dealer Victoria Golembiovskaya joined as joint CEO in London alongside existing owner Jorge Coll, establishing Colnaghi as the only major commercial gallery to specialize in artworks from antiquity through to the modern era.

About Artur Ramon Art
Founded in 1911 as an antique dealer, Artur Ramon Art is one of the oldest art galleries in Barcelona. Painting and drawing, from the ancient to the contemporary, are the main fields in which Artur Ramon works, without renouncing the decorative arts. Various disciplines define them as experts in ancient art: sculpture, ceramics, engraving, furniture, glass and silver. The challenge of the fourth generation of antique dealers, formed by Artur and Mónica Ramon Navarro, with the support of Artur Ramon Picas, is to present its antiquities from a contemporary perspective.

The gallery consists of two different areas that complement each other. With access to the street, the Art Space is a recovered industrial warehouse where the exhibitions take place. In collaboration with contemporary artists and curators, we explore ancient art in search of a new way to explain the profession of antiquary. Analogies, interventions, dialogues, conferences and presentations linked to current art and culture dynamically complement the usual activity of the art gallery in Barcelona. The Private Art Gallery, located on the first floor, is a space for the management of painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics and high-quality furniture, and is designed to stimulate public and private art collecting. It has been conceived as a center for management and advice on artworks, a research space with a library of more than 6,000 volumes dedicated to all disciplines. Eventually, the most outstanding works of the gallery’s collection and the latest acquisitions are also exhibited.

Specialization and internationalization are the two axes of Artur Ramon Art. The search for unpublished pieces and the recovery of lost identities through the best specialists in each subject, whose research is published in catalogues. This art gallery is also a centre for the study and management of museum quality works of art. The gallery offers advice to collectors for the appraisal of artworks.

Artur Ramon Art has a regular presence in the main fairs of the world dedicated to antiques, drawing and ancient and modern painting. The gallery takes part in TEFAF Maastricht and the Salon du Dessin in Paris, and also exhibits at other international fairs, including Master Drawings in New York and Gabinete Art Fair in Madrid.

About Sala Parés
Founded in 1877, Sala Parés was the first art gallery to be established in Spain. It is currently among the ten oldest galleries in the world that continue to operate. During its 144 years of history it has remained a reference gallery in Barcelona for figurativism and realistism, as well as historical art.

The great masters of Catalan and Spanish painting of the last third of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th, including Picasso and Dali, as well as the great names of Catalan modernism were exhibited by the gallery. For many years Sala Parés represented the best Catalan artists of the moment: Ramon Casas, Santiago Rusiñol, Joaquim Mir, Anglada Camarasa, Isidro Nonell and many more.

Throughout its history the gallery has contributed to the formation of important art collections, both private and in relevant museums, also bringing together exhibitions of the great masters of Spanish painting since the 15th century and highlighting the works of artists such as Velázquez Goya or Murillo, which were sold to some of the main museums in Spain.

Since its origin, it has remained in the same location in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona where it occupies a space with three exhibition halls. The space is actually visited by more than 50,000 people each year, many of them coming from very different parts of the world.

Today the Sala Parés has a solid and stable nucleus of collectors from both Barcelona and the rest of Spain, as well as other European countries, and collaborates with galleries and museums from different parts of the world, in addition to participating in some of the main international fairs.