12/03/2021 — 04/07/2021
Curated byMuriel Gómez, Jordana Mendelson and Joan M. Minguet.
Curatorial assistance from Dolors Rodríguez Roig
Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Catalunya
Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Catalunya
Miró-ADLAN: An Archive of Modernity (1932-1936) reconstructs the key role of the group of artists and intellectual known as ADLAN (Amics de l'Art Nou [Friends of New Art]) in introducing modernity to the Barcelona of the 1930s, during the years of the Spanish Republic. While in major European cities avant-garde movements had the support of critics and collectors, here modernity needed the impetus of an enthusiastic group that sought to regenerate Catalan culture and adopted Joan Miró as its leader in the promotion of new art.
The exhibition presents documents and ephemera from the ADLAN archive, held in several public and private venues, primarily in the COAC and Fundació Joan Miró archives. ADLAN's secretary Adelita Lobo played was an essential figure in documenting and preserving the materials in this archive; invitations, notebooks, and posters became objects of memory and now allow us to recreate the group's key role in building modernity in Catalonia, organizing more than fifty events across all artistic disciplines - painting, architecture, music, dance, circus, photography, film, etc.
The show also features a selection of pieces from the five ephemeral exhibitions that Miró held in Barcelona to offer the members of the cultural group a preview of the works that would then travel to Paris, New York, or Zurich. These exhibitions, open only to ADLAN members, provided a laboratory or a test run for the artist and reveal the experimental nature of his work and his persistent collaboration with others involved in the group.
The preservation of the documents on display was key for being able to recreate the places, the events, and the individuals who made this renewal of the concept of modern culture possible; some of these people, belonging to the Catalan petite bourgeoisie, are Joan Prats, Josep Lluís Sert, Adelita Lobo, J. V. Foix, and Sebastià Gasch, just to name a few. ADLAN's influence spread among artists, architects, writers and musicians from Barcelona, particularly during the post-war years and during the 1970s. The close connection between ADLAN and GATCPAC (Grup d'Arquitectes i Tècnics Catalans per al Progrés de l'Arquitectura Contemporània [Group of Catalan Architects and Technicians for the Progress of Contemporary Architecture]) forged a view of modernity associated with architectural rationalism and visual surrealism - which is precisely what led to the creation of the Fundació Joan Miró.
The exhibition is part of the Miró Documents series, whose aim is to use the Fundació's archive to further explore certain aspects of Miró's work. With the complicity of New York University, Col·legi Oficial d'Arquitectes de Catalunya and Museu Picasso de Barcelona. The conservation of the collection and its presentation has the generous and continued support of Fundació Vila Casas.
