The year dedicated to the Vallmitjana brothers takes back the prolific and sparse work by these Catalan sculptors
Any Vallmitjana (Vallmitjana Year) wants to show the value of the work by the sculptor Venanci Vallmitjana, whose hundredth death anniversary is this year, and his brother Agapit, regarded as the ones who renewed the Catalan sculpture, and teachers of many generations of sculptors between the Romanticism and Modernism. Although there are creations by the Vallmitjana brothers in the main museums of Catalonia and some of their sculptures can be seen in Parc de la Ciutadella, or in the façade of the Parliament, in the Palace of Justice, the Cathedral and in the Basilica in Montserrat, this heritage is not fully known. Now, the University of Barcelona and the Seminari Conciliar de Barcelona co-organize, in collaboration with the main cultural institutions of Catalonia, the Any Vallmitjana 2019, to focus on the academic research of these authors and share their work with the public.
Any Vallmitjana (Vallmitjana Year) wants to show the value of the work by the sculptor Venanci Vallmitjana, whose hundredth death anniversary is this year, and his brother Agapit, regarded as the ones who renewed the Catalan sculpture, and teachers of many generations of sculptors between the Romanticism and Modernism. Although there are creations by the Vallmitjana brothers in the main museums of Catalonia and some of their sculptures can be seen in Parc de la Ciutadella, or in the façade of the Parliament, in the Palace of Justice, the Cathedral and in the Basilica in Montserrat, this heritage is not fully known. Now, the University of Barcelona and the Seminari Conciliar de Barcelona co-organize, in collaboration with the main cultural institutions of Catalonia, the Any Vallmitjana 2019, to focus on the academic research of these authors and share their work with the public.
Any Vallmitjana combines the exhibition of the works by the Vallmitjana brothers in the museums and institutions, with an exhibition in different locations, with an online map. This online platform shows the location and description of several works by the Vallmitjana brothers around Catalonia and Spain -more than 300 works approximately. In fact, the website is expected to be the tool to create a first guide of the Vallmitjana brothers and Venanci Vallmitjanaʼs son, Agapit Vallmitjana, named like his uncle. For the first time, the production of these brothers and many of their works which have been lightly studied will be for the first time gathered, catalogued and identified to be analysed by the experts. Also, Any Vallmitjana 2019 encourages people to gather unknown works, from private collections or located in unknown places, to collect and document them within the corpus of these works.
The starting point, and one of the core moments of Any Vallmitjana, will be the scientific days, to take place on May 8 and 9 in the Seminari Conciliar de Barcleona and the Historical Building of the University of Barcelona (1850-1930) want to study the production of these two sculptors with tables, conferences and other activities. The sessions will be structured in three tables: “Germans Vallmitjana: noves mirades” on the figure of the sculptors and their work; “El taller dels Vallmitjana: tradició i modernitat”, to treat the creation of big sculptures and the context of the European sculpture of that time; and “La restauració de la memòria perduda” will study techniques and materials and the reconstruction of disappeared projects, while it will also present proposals to share the work related to the Vallmitjana with the audience.
Most institutions taking part in Any Vallmitjana guard works by these authors. The University, for instance, has the sculptures of five figures symbolizing great milestones of knowledge in the Spanish history in the all: the writer and theologian Saint Isidore; the jurist, philosopher and doctor Averrois; Alfonso X the Wise; the writer and theologian Ramon Llull and the humanist Joan Lluís Vives. Another building of the UB, the Faculty of Fine Arts, holds another work by the Vallmitjana brothers, a terracotta used as a draft for the sculpture of Elisabeth II in Palau de Pedralbes. Institutions and museums that, like the University, have Vallmitjana works, will exhibit them with information banners for each piece and the website address so that visitors can enter the online route with the description of these works.
As part of the activities of the Any Vallmitjana, there will be an exhibition on the façade of the Barcelona Cathedral and the role of the Vallmitjana brothers, in which Museu Diocesà de Barcelona, the cathedral and the Frederic Marès Museum take part. There will be many dissemination conferences, guided tours and colloquiums in the different institutions participating in Any Vallmitjana, and workshops such as the one in the Escola Superior de Conservació i Restauració de Béns Culturals de Catalunya, to show how pieces from the collection of the Vallmitjana family are restored.
Apart from the University of Barcelona and Seminari de Barcelona as organizers, other participants in the Any Vallmitjana are the Network of Art Museums of Catalonia, the Provincial Council of Barcelona, the Department of Urban Architecture and Heritage of the Barcelona City Council, the National Museum of Art of Catalonia, the Frederic Marès Museum, Espai Subirachs, the Barcelona Cathedral, Museu Diocesà de Barcelona, the Maritime Museum of Barcelona, the Barcelona Museum of Modernism, Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi, Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià, Montserrat Museum, the Bishopric of Vic, the Library-Museum Victor Balaguer, Can Papiol Romanticism Museum , Escola Superior de Conservació i Restauració de Béns Culturals de Catalunya, Abelló Museum - Art Foundation, Mataró Museum, the Manresa Regional Museum, Museum of la Garrotxa, the Museum of Tossa de Mar, and the Sitges Museums, among others.