The Sala Parés is the oldest art gallery in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. Initially an art store, established in 1840 by Joan Parés, it slowly evolved into a gallery and formally became one in 1877.

History

Founded by the original store owner's son, , an art collector, it became the primary artistic showcase for Barcelona during the "" (Gold Rush), a period of rapid economic growth for the Catalan bourgeoisie. The artists who got their start there at that time include Modest Urgell, Romà Ribera, Josep and Francesc Masriera and Simó Gómez.Article
in the Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana. In the early 1890s, it became the home base for a new generation of

Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

painters such as

Santiago Rusiñol Santiago Rusiñol i Prats (, ; Barcelona 25 February 1861 – Aranjuez 13 June 1931) was a Spanish painter, poet, journalist, collector and playwright. He was one of the leaders of the Catalan '' modernisme'' movement. He created more than ...

and

Ramon Casas Ramon Casas i Carbó (; 4 January 1866 – 29 February 1932) was a Spanish artist. Living through a turbulent time in the history of his native Barcelona, Catalonia, he was known as a portraitist, sketching and painting the intellectual, ec ...

. It also became the exhibit hall of choice for the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc. A decade later, it was home for the Post-Modernists; notably

Isidre Nonell Isidre Nonell i Monturiol (30 November 1872 – 21 February 1911) was a Spanish artist known for his expressive portrayal of socially marginalized individuals in late 19th-century Barcelona. He is considered to belong to the post- Modernista gene ...

, Joaquim Mir and . Parés himself showed no particular inclination for any artistic style and was quite eclectic in his choice of works for display. This eventually led to a decline in favor of other galleries with more specific orientations, such as the Faianç Català, the Galeries Laietanes (both devoted to

Noucentisme Noucentisme (, ''noucentista'' being its adjective) was a Catalan cultural movement of the early 20th century that originated largely as a reaction against Modernisme, both in art and ideology, and was, simultaneously, a perception of art almos ...

) and the

Galeries Dalmau Galeries Dalmau was an art gallery in Barcelona, Spain, from 1906 to 1930 (also known as Sala Dalmau, Les Galeries Dalmau, Galería Dalmau, and Galeries J. Dalmau). The gallery was founded and managed by the Symbolist painter and restorer . The ...

(

Avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

). In 1925, it was acquired by the art dealer, , youngest son of the poet

Joan Maragall Joan Maragall i Gorina (; 10 October 1860 – 20 December 1911) was a Catalan poet, journalist and translator, the foremost member of the movement in literature. His manuscripts are preserved in the Joan Maragall Archive of Barcelona. Li ...

. The gallery was completely redesigned and began to promote younger artists, including Josep Mompou, , Manolo Hugué, and

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...

. Auctions were also established and it became a major supplier of older paintings for museums. After World War II, although the gallery maintained its connections to the avant-garde, it also began to focus more on Postimpressionism and other relatively conservative styles. A branch in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, known as the "Swan Gallery" is operated by Maragall's son.Pere Andreau Cullell Farràs, ''L'oasi català'', Planeta, 2001 In 2013, it was announced that a showroom would be opened in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Some of the artists represented were, Gabino Rey, , , and , among others.

References

External links

Sala Parés website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sala Pares 1877 establishments in Spain Art museums and galleries established in 1877 Art museums and galleries in Spain Contemporary art galleries in Spain Buildings and structures in Barcelona Culture in Barcelona Tourist attractions in Barcelona

History

References

Further reading

External links