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17% of The 22.500 works of the Reina Sofia museum are donations

The Reina Sofía National Museum has acquired in auction 61 advertising posters of the late NINETEENTH century and early TWENTIETH century, for 38.000 euros, in the house Soler y Llach of Barcelona. In addition to the mythical image of the child of Freixenet, there are works of Josep Renau, Josep Obiols and Ramon Casas, among others. “The addition of these pieces form part of a larger project of the museum, whose goal is to integrate within the permanent collection of the poster as a paradigm of the art object at the service of society”, explains Rosario Peiró, head of the department of collections of the Reina Sofia museum. These posters will be an essential part of the new story museum, which will replace the one created in 2009 and whose inauguration is scheduled for march of 2021.

For the moment, the Reina Sofía presents some examples of the posters that Josep Renau took place during the Civil War as elements of propaganda of the republican army. But the institution had a hole in the referents of these other examples that are fundamental to the portrait of society and politics that emerges in the turn of the century. Peiró remember that was formed in the department of posters from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, where in 1937 he was able to see a great exhibition of posters of the Spanish Civil War. The Reina Sofia, as acknowledged by the head of collections, aspires to give a similar significance to this genre of art that broke down the barrier between high and low culture. “This purchase is essential to display the imagery that sets up the Spanish culture,” he adds.

The opportunity jumped a few months ago, when it went on sale the personal collection of Josep Torné, who had been dedicated to acquire film programs, trading cards, comics, and posters. At his death, the family put on sale this treasure, whose major piece was a poster of the painter Cassandras, sold 27,000 euros. He pushed collectors americans and the price of auction flooded the reserves of the Reina Sofia, which had to let him escape.

Poster of Artiach Emilio Ferrer (c. 1925).

Reinforcement of the paint

The poster of the manola with Manila shawl, which takes you by the hand to the monkey, measures two meters high and is divided into three parts, to be pasted easily on the walls. With the addition of the two famous posters of Anis del mono, made by Ramón Casas in 1898, the Reina Sofia wraps her piece of the museum more important of that time: The woman in blue, which Picasso painted in 1901. “They are essential to riding different lines of reading and understand the creation of this painting is key,” says Peiró, which indicates that the parts Houses show the presence of the French, the image of the woman and the atmosphere of the night. Examples are essential to recreate the decisive moment in the plastic arts.

The poster started this way a trip is paradoxical. Born to live and shout is stuck to the walls of the streets and was designed to impact and disappear. However now, in the exhibition halls, is a work of art. “It is absurd to deny the importance of the considered art of the people. The poster came to all the public for his popular character and must be integrated in the museum along with the rest of the arts, such as engraving, drawing, or the film”, says Francesc Quílez, chief curator of the Cabinet of drawings and prints at the National Museum of Art of Catalonia (MNAC), the other great Spanish center that has integrated the poster into the story of their collections.

four years Ago, with the rearrangement of the collection made under the direction of José Lahuerta, the poster went up to the room. A year ago, the MUSEUM has renovated its narration in museums and posters have come out reinforced, with nearly a hundred exhibits. Have No budget for acquisitions and from five years ago have not purchased any poster, but have 1500 parts in their funds, thanks to the collections of Lluís Plandiura and Alexandre de Riquer. On the Civil War feature with the loans of the particular collection most important of the country, the businessman Luis Carulla Canals, who died in 1990.

Quilez finds the loss of economic value in the auction of the painting of the NINETEENTH and the stability of the posters from the same era. From the auction house Soler y Llach, where the Reina Sofia has acquired the 61 posters from this important collection, ensure that from 2012, the interest in this genre had fallen until 2019, at which time the poster has come back to be reborn thanks to the care already provided by the museums.

Date Of Update: 10 January 2020, 07:00