Figurations in Between Wars 1914-1945

The exhibition proposes a reading focused on Catalan artistic production between 1914 and 1945. With more than one hundred works, it revisits the tension between tradition and modernity that Sala Parés materialised within the Barcelona art circuit, while also defining the complex nature of much of painting and sculpture of the period, shaped by a creative context that was multifaceted, dynamic and highly effervescent. It is precisely at this moment that the vast banner of figuration — or figurations — that would be carried by the gallery on Petritxol Street for decades to come, is defined and woven.

This idea forms the foundation on which we build the exhibition Figurations in between wars (1914–1945), establishing a connection between the paradigmatic shift brought about by the beginning of the Maragall era in the history of Sala Parés — whose centenary is celebrated this year — and the richness of Catalan figuration of the time: entirely heterogeneous, searching for new forms, full of variants and, at times, marked by conflict. It is an extraordinarily fertile creative period in which new figurative expressions emerge, from Cézannian-rooted painting to Cubist formulas and the blossoming of Surrealism, reflecting the response of artists to a turbulent era. Some would focus on human drama, while others would choose to offer a refuge from unfolding events.

Outstanding works from key moments in the careers of highly significant artists such as Josep de Togores, Olga Sacharoff, Manolo Hugué, Joaquín Torres-García, Juan Gris, Óscar Domínguez, Julio González, Pere Gastó, Ramon Calsina, Ricard Canals, Joaquim Sunyer, Miquel Villà, Josep Llorens Artigas, Rafael Barradas, Hermen Anglada Camarasa, Joaquim Mir or Helios Gómez, among many others, invite us to delve into a period marked by social, political and, evidently, aesthetic transformations, in which research and the need to formulate new figurations opened an intriguing array of possibilities within a world between wars.