LLEI D'ART 13

TheNational ArtMuseumof Catalonia’s modernart collection is rehung It now incorporates the 1950s and include the Dau al Set (Seven-sidedDie)movement, establishing a reference for modernisme , noucentisme , avant-garde andCivilWar art. The collectionof theNational ArtMuseumof Catalonia –aparticularly coherent and idiosyncratic one–was bornout of the 1888Universal Exhibition, and is home tomore than 1350works displaying thebirthofmodernity.Many of thesepieces are rather little known, bearing inmind that part of this collection ismade upof particularlymodern expressions ofmodernity, such as posters, illustration and caricature, stamp and coin collections, photography and cinema aswell as decorative art.With this introduction, bearing the seal of its director PepeSerra and the gallery’s headof collections, Juan José Lahuerta, the museum seeks to tell thepassingofmodernity through theCatalanCapital, followinghistory to the post-CivilWar avant-gardes. The collection is distributed into four larger areas and an epilogue: TheAscent of theModern Artist; Modernisme (s); Noucentisme(s) ; Art and CivilWar and the epiloguededicated to the years immediately after thepost-war period and the 1950s. TheAscent of theModernArtist During themid-19th century, coincidingwith the formationof bourgeois society, the figure of the modern artist appears. Quitedifferently from the artist of the ancien régime , tied to the symbolic offices of theChurchor the aristocracy, the new artist workswithin an anonymousmarket and a cosmopolitan city. Given the reality of art now turned intomerchandise, the artist invents a new religion: art for art’s sake, art that he is highpriest of. In a society of upheaval, governedby bourgeois decorum and shockedby class struggle, the artist de A rtede C ataluña se reordena sociedad burguesa y con la burguesía misma como clase, pero ello encierra una gran paradoja y una terrible aporía, puesto que el enemigo burgués es también su cliente, y el arte, por revolucionario que aparezca, una de las cúspides del mercadodel lujo. ElModernismo Escenario del poder burgués y de la lucha de clases, la ciudad convulsa del cambio de siglo es también el lugar por excelencia del arte moderno. Todos los efectos de la industrialización, de la tecnificación, de los mercados del Gaspar Hommar, 1903.MNAC (Barcelona) 21