What documents does it contain?The collection is mostly made up of texts, but there are also photographs and press cuttings. For the most part it is made up of correspondence between Josep Dalmau i Rafel and the artists he worked with, in addition to catalogues and invitations to the exhibitions held at the Galeries Dalmau. There is also a smaller cache of documents about the running of the galleries. There are also some press cuttings, articles about the Galeries Dalmau, and reviews of some of the shows it held, and a dossier by the College of Architects of Catalonia about the preparation of an exhibition on the Galeries held in 1969. Finally, there are some photographs and reproductions of documents or artworks. The documents are mostly in Spanish, although there are also some in Catalan or French. When do they date from?Most of the documents date from the period 1906 to 1930, when the gallery was open. There are also some documents from between 1887 and 2013 in relation with Josep Dalmau’s other activities. Documents dated after 1937 concern Maite Bermejo’s work in managing the collection before it was donated to the Girona City Council. How important are they?The documents from the Galeries Dalmau are an essential part of understanding the artistic mood of Barcelona, but also the world, in the first decades of the 20th century. On one hand, Josep Dalmau engaged in correspondence with such figures as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí, but also other leading artists such as the Dadaist Francis Picabia and other outstanding international Cubists like Juan Gris and Albert Gleizes. On the other, the catalogues from the exhibitions held there reveal the key role played by the Galeries Dalmau in the introduction and spread of artistic movements in Catalonia and the promotion of Catalan artists abroad who would go on to achieve international fame. |
