Oriol Maspons, Retrospective, MNAC, Barcelona: 5 July 2019-12 January 2020

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

The MNAC organises a retrospective on the pictures by the photographer Oriol Maspons, whose style, during 40 years of works through reportages, portraits, fashion shoots and advertising, has set a balance between Catalan tradition and a wider gaze on Europe and on modernity.

Oriol Maspons was one of the most famous Spanish photographers, known for having modernised the photographic language in Spain between the 50s  and the 60s. He portrayed many sides of his city, Barcelona especially the poorest and the most run-down areas, like the Raval or the Somorrostro, between the 60s and the 70s when his pictures narrated the state of the economy and the hippie lifestyle in Ibiza, with its unconventional and unbelievable parties. Oriol Maspons’ shots also  recorded the artistic life in Barcelona starting from the 60s. Frequent subjects in his photos were in fact artistic and intellectual associations, like the “Gauche Devide”, and people from the Barcellona School, a movement that revolutionised the cinematographic world.

Even if he was a proponent of Catalan culture, Oriol Maspons worked in the USA and especially in Paris, where he spent time in the best-known photographic groups and became acquainted with members of the Club 30x40, like the founder Doloy, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Daniel Masclet, André Thevenet and Robert Doisneau. His stay in France had an important impact on Maspons’ artistic growth, since it allowed him to create a very personal style which could both save the Catalan traditions of his training, and expand on it in  the light of his Parisian experience. For this reason, Oriol Maspons was ranked among the exponents of the new avant-garde and he brought an international flavour to Catalan photography.

The exhibition at the MNAC has been made possible thanks to the financial support  from the Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation, which bought about 200 works by the photographer, in view of the retrospective about him. The photos will be added to his archive stored at the National Museum, which at the moment has more than 7.000 pictures. This donation allows the museum to continue with its mission: to protect, save, study and to spread Catalan culture.

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

Palau Nacional, Parc de Montjuïc, s/n, 08038

Oriol Maspons y Julio Ubiña. Toreo de salón, 1962 © Oriol Maspons, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2018
Oriol Maspons y Julio Ubiña. Toreo de salón, 1962 © Oriol Maspons, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2018
Oriol Maspons. Biquini, sin fechar © Oriol Maspons, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2018
Oriol Maspons. Biquini, sin fechar © Oriol Maspons, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2018
Oriol Maspons. Nueva York, Poeta en Nueva York, 1965 © Oriol Maspons, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2018
Oriol Maspons. Nueva York, Poeta en Nueva York, 1965 © Oriol Maspons, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2018

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