23rd Conference. Barcelona

In the late 19th century, Barcelona gave rise to a unique cultural movement that embraced not only the visual arts and architecture but also music and literature: Catalan Modernism. For the first time in Germany, an exhibition is dedicated to this fascinating period, presenting around 140 works that capture the vibrant metropolis and its cultural scene between 1880 and 1914. Alongside renowned figures such as Antoni Gaudí and Pablo Picasso, the show highlights artists still little known in Germany, including Ramon Casas, Santiago Rusiñol, Isidre Nonell, Joaquim Mir, and Hermenegildo Anglada-Camarasa. In their quest for a distinctive artistic identity, these protagonists drew on diverse influences—from Catalan medieval tradition and the Spanish Old Masters to the Parisian avant-garde and European Art Nouveau, as well as from the social and political tensions of the modern city and the landscapes of Mallorca as an Arcadian counterimage.

With loans from the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya and the Círculo del Liceo, Barcelona; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani de Palma; the Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza; and other international public and private
collections.

The symposium is held in preparation for the exhibition Barcelona moderna. From Gaudí to Picasso that will be on view from October 23, 2026, to February 21, 2027, at the Kunsthalle Munich, and from March 20 to June 20, 2027, at the Museum Barberini.

Conference program (PDF, 192.07KB)

from 09:30
Admission to the museum for symposium guests

10:00
Welcome
Dr. Ortrud Westheider, Museum Barberini
Dr. Roger Diederen, Kunsthalle München

10:15
Barcelona 1900: Staging Modernism
Dr. Nerina Santorius, Curator of the exhibition, Museum Barberini
Lecture in German

11:15
Between Catalonia, Spain, and Europe. Cultural Interrelationships of Modernism
Carlos Alonso Pérez-Fajardo, Curator of the exhibition, Madrid & Dr. Franziska Stöhr, Curator of the exhibition, Kunsthalle München
Lecture in English

12:15
Lunch break

14:00
De la colección al mito. El Cau Ferrat como laboratorio del modernismo
Ignasi Domènech Vives, Museus de Sitges
Lecture in Spanish with simultaneous translation into German

15:00
The (Abandoned) Gardens of Spain. On the Poetics of the Vegetal in the Literature and Paintings of Santiago Rusiñol
Prof. Dr. Jenny Haase-Knöpfle, Universität Potsdam
Lecture in German

16:00
Coffee break

16:30
Joaquim Mir y Mallorca. En busca del paisaje moderno
Nadia Hernández Henche, Barcelona
Lecture in Spanish with simultaneous translation into German

17:30
“Make Way for the Young”: Pablo Picasso between Barcelona and Paris
Megan Fontanella, Guggenheim New York
Lecture in English

18:30
Reception