On the occasion of the celebration of the Any Vallmitjana (Vallmitjana Year), we offer you a visit to the modern art galleries to discover the work and the context of the brothers Venanci and Agapit Vallmitjana i Barbany. The visit will be given by Natàlia Esquinas and Cristina Rodríguez-Samaniego and is part of the activities planned for the celebration of Vallmitjana Year (2019).

Aiming to present the Vallmitjana brothers in their context, as present, in a period of transition, singular and rich, of great importance in the process of stylistic evolution of sculpture towards modernity. His work and his career will be located in relation to that of his masters - the past -, and that of his followers - the future -, opening a window to both the nineteenth century Catalan art and the one of the turn of the century.

The brothers Venanci and Agapit Vallmitjana and Barbany were the nexus of unity between the Italian-style Neoclassicism of Damià Campeny, and the generation of Modernists, their disciples, starring among others by Josep Llimona. Their position as referents, as renovators of the sculptural language before 1900, makes them the key hinges to be able to lay the foundations of the figurative sculpture of the 20th century.

The visit will cover works that are so representative of the Vallmitjana as the Jacent Christ or The beauty dominating the force, but also of lesser known ones, while travelling for the wealth of genres treated by the sculptors during their professional careers. However, it will be possible to put them in relation to pieces of Campeny, such as Lucretia or Cleopatra, dotted with the classic sensibility of 1800; and others from Llimona, like Modestia, similar to the poetic Symbolist of the end of the century.

On the occasion of this activity, some works will be taken from the reserves, which can be seen exclusively on this occasion.