Exhibitions
“Artur Carbonell. Beyond the mask”: the great retrospective that vindicates a total creator
The Sitges Museums present more than 170 works to rediscover the painter, set designer and pioneer of avant-garde theatre, in the most complete exhibition dedicated to the artist to date.
The exhibition Artur Carbonell. Beyond the Mask brings together more than 170 pieces —including paintings, drawings, photographs, posters, sets and unpublished documents— from the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, the Museu d'Història de Girona, the Fundació JV Foix, as well as other institutions and private collections. The exhibition vindicates the figure of Artur Carbonell as one of the great names of magical realism and Catalan surrealism, and highlights his pioneering role in avant-garde theatre in the State.
The Sitges Museums are opening on November 20 the largest retrospective dedicated to the Sitges artist Artur Carbonell i Carbonell (1906–1973), curated by art historians Ignasi Domènech Vives and Mariona Seguranyes Bolaños, a multifaceted creator who stood out in fields as diverse as painting, theatre direction, set design and pedagogy. Beyond the Mask offers a comprehensive look at his career and places his work in the place it deserves within Catalan cultural history.
The exhibition, promoted by the Sitges Heritage Consortium, presents for the first time an exhaustive overview of the artistic career of Artur Carbonell. It brings together more than 170 pieces -paintings, drawings, photographs, posters, sets and unpublished documents- that allow us to understand the creative breadth of the artist. The exhibition is divided into two spaces in the Sitges Museums: the Sala Vaixells of the Palau de Maricel, which houses his pictorial production, and the ground floor of the Maricel Museum, where his facet as a theatre director and set designer is displayed.
Artur Carbonell i Carbonell (Sitges, 1906–1973) was one of the most unique creators of Catalan art in the 20th century. Painter, set designer, theatre director and pedagogue, his career combines artistic research with intense stage activity that places him as a pioneer of avant-garde theatre in the State. After beginning studies in architecture, which he soon abandoned, Carbonell definitively opted for painting. In 1929 he travelled to Paris with Joaquim Sunyer, a decisive journey that would put him in contact with the European avant-garde and would forever mark his visual language. In his pictorial work, he moves between magical realism and surrealism, with landscapes and dreamlike compositions, often of great formal purity and a notable symbolic component.
At the same time, Carbonell developed a prolific career in the world of theatre. He directed works by Cocteau, Shakespeare and Euripides, and designed sets and costumes that stood out for their modernity and artistic sense. He was a professor of Drawing and Stage Production at the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona, of which he would end up being deputy director, and he also founded his own company, the Teatro del Arte. In Sitges, his involvement in cultural life was constant, leaving a mark that still endures.
