Room 207.02

The Dalmau Gallery in Barcelona was, since its founding in 1906, a kind of reconnaissance for avant-garde art in Spain. After his time in Paris, Josep Dalmau wanted to create a gallery with an international spirit adhering to the model of French establishments such as Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler’s Galerie Simon. Consequently, Dalmau was adept at combining an interest in international contemporary art that was also anchored in local scenes. The circumstances of the First World War were favourable for artists from disputing countries to exhibit in a space protected under Spanish neutrality. It was in this space where one of the first exhibitions of Cubist art was held, featuring works by Jean Metzinger, Juan Gris and Marcel Duchamp, the first public presentation of works by Uruguayan artists Rafael Barradas and Joaquín Torres García and solo shows centred on artists like Kees van Dongen and Albert Gleizes. In addition, a collective show was organised that included major names in French art, from Post-Impressionism to Abstraction, with pieces by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger and María Blanchard, among others. In terms of the Spanish scene, the first solo shows of Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí were held in Dalmau, displaying works that preceded their affiliation with Surrealism, and an exhibition devoted to the drawings of Federico García Lorca.      

One of the most influential shows organised by Dalmau was one focused on Francis Picabia in 1922. The gallerist had already contacted this artist during his previous spell in Barcelona and together they conceived a show where the works, on a black background, unfurled with no hierarchy or ostensible relationship between them: one was a series, abstract in nature, formed by dysfunctional machines inspired by mechanics manuals, the other, portraits of archetypal flamenco dancers. The exhibition, a failure critically speaking and in terms of ticket sales, was presented with a lecture by André Breton and included a catalogue published solely in French, since it had been conceived with an international audience in mind and aspired to situate the artists, gallery and country within the geography of modernity.