Touching Colour: The Revival of Pastel, Fundació MAPFRE, Barcelona: 3 October 2019-5 January 2020

This is archived material. It is for reference purposes only.

The exhibition Touching Colour at the Casa Garriga Nogués delves deeper into the history of the pastel technique.

The 18th century has generally been considered as the golden age of the pastel technique, but it wasn't until the 19th century that it slowly managed to become independent from other techniques such as oil painting. The material qualities of pastel- namely intense colours, soft tones, ease-of-use and handling- perfectly chimed with a certain notion of modernity that was taking root at that time.

The exhibition Touching Colour, curated by Philippe Saunier, searches deeper into the history of the revival of pastel from an international perspective and underscores its main episodes and most famed proponents, who transformed this technique into an art form in its own right. Eugène Boudin, Odilon Redon and Edgar Degas can be found among the artists who popularized this technique and managed to confer an innovative status on the pastel crayon. Pastels continued to be used during the first half of the 20th century and were applied to the break from the old artistic languages ushered in by the previous generation by Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, María Blanchard and Theo van Doesburg, among others.

Fundació MAPFRE

Carrer de la Diputació, 250, 08007 Barcelona

Edgar Degas Caballos de carreras en un paisaje, 1894 Pastel sobre papel. Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, en préstamo en el Museo Nacional Thyssen Bornemisza, Madrid.
Edgar Degas Caballos de carreras en un paisaje, 1894 Pastel sobre papel. Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, en préstamo en el Museo Nacional Thyssen Bornemisza, Madrid.
Giuseppe de Nittis Signora in giardino, (Dama en el jardín) v.1880 Pastel sobre lienzo 140 x 60 x 4 cm Colección particular, Turín.
Giuseppe de Nittis Signora in giardino, (Dama en el jardín) v.1880 Pastel sobre lienzo 140 x 60 x 4 cm Colección particular, Turín.

Opening Hours

Monday:
14:00 - 20:00
Tuesday:
10:00 - 20:00
Wednesday:
10:00 - 20:00
Thursday:
10:00 - 20:00
Friday:
10:00 - 20:00
Saturday:
10:00 - 20:00
Sunday:
11:00 - 19:00