Barcelona Moderna

Barcelona’s transformation into a crucible of modern art, design, and architecture is explored in this exhibition catalog that sets
its artistic flowering in vivid relief.

Presenting more than 140 works across painting, architecture, decorative arts, and works on paper, the book offers a wide-ranging portrait of Catalan Modernism between 1880 and 1914—a period during which Barcelona became Spain’s most innovative metropolis and a magnet for artists, architects, writers, and intellectuals.
The volume explores this important chapter in Spanish art as the product of a complex cultural environment shaped by social upheaval, rapid industrialization, political volatility, and international artistic influences. Masterpieces by Ramon Casas, Santiago Rusiñol, Isidre Nonell, Joaquim Mir, and Hermen Anglada Camarasa appear alongside architectural models and furnishings by Antoni Gaudí, Lluís Domènech i Montaner, and Josep Puig i Cadafalch, revealing the interplay between the visual and the built environment.
Early works by Pablo Picasso underscore the city’s role in the formation of one of the twentieth century’s most influential artists. Beautifully illustrated and intellectually expansive, the catalog offers a fresh and compelling understanding of a city whose art, architecture, and ideas helped reshape the contours of European modernism.