The great "move forward" of the Vila Casas Foundation art collection

BarcelonaThe public service vocation of the pharmaceutical entrepreneur and patron Antoni Vila Casas (1930-2023) It was extraordinary. "I believe that if society has treated you well, you have to get along with society," Vila Casas affirmed. "I dedicate myself to supporting medical research and promoting contemporary Catalan artists, and in this way I give back to society some of what it has given me." Now this quote opens the revamped tour of his painting museum at Can Framis in Barcelona, ​​in a monographic space dedicated to his life and work, to remember him and introduce him to younger generations.

"The foundation today reflects Antoni's personality, his open and generous character, and his forward-thinking approach, following his maxim of 'walking the path,'" explains the foundation's vice president and director of the health area, Montserrat Viladomiu, the widow's daughter. “Today is a very important day because it marks the end of a very long process of work, of dialogue with Mr. Vila Casas himself and with his collection, and also because it is the beginning of a new stage in which the foundation takes a step forward to maintain his legacy and bring it closer to what the city needs today,” affirms the institution’s artistic director, Bernat Puig. “We want the foundation and this museum to be useful to society and also an element of dialogue, reflection, and improvement for Catalan society.”

The renovation of the Can Framis museum coincides with the foundation’s 25th anniversary, as Cristina Ribes, who assumed its general management a few weeks ago, points out. “We are beginning a new stage and reaffirming our commitment to the legacy of Antoni Vila Casas, in which art and health are at the heart of our mission. We want our permanent collections to be the backbone of our work and a source of constant learning,” says Ribes.

The oldest works in the exhibition are three paintings of soldiers by Josep Cusachs, and the most recent is The Absent CollectorRafel G. Bianchi's painting, winner of the Vila Casas Foundation painting prize, serves as a metaphor for the foundation's situation after Vila Casas's death. Puigdollers has selected 224 works by 130 Catalan artists, in a journey from the most tangible reality to humanistic and spiritual ideas. "This foundation's key to returning to Mr. Vila Casas was key, but we needed a new key to returning that couldn't be summarized in a specific person. Therefore, we believe that what can best explain this legacy, this philosophy of how he understood art and culture, is the collection he had intuitively built up over the years at Puigdollers. The best way to continue was to follow his spirit." flâneur"...from someone who wants to enjoy art through observation and reflection, and from there generate debates and make this museum an agora and a space for personal growth." Furthermore, this new artistic vision allows them to strengthen the foundation's health area.

A major exhibition in three

The project is titled A constantly changing permanent collectionPuigdollers will be making adjustments each year. Furthermore, it has gained a new room where it plans to hold exhibitions of very young artists, as well as cabinet displays of creators who haven't received enough attention. The first thing that strikes you is that the rooms are more spacious than before. And from the former bullfighting space, only a photograph by Ramon Masats remains. Salvador Dalí has entered the permanent collection thanks to a drawing from Vila Casas's personal collection, and women artists such as Maria Girona, Magda Bolumar, and Maria Chordà have also gained prominence. Puigdollers has also wisely arranged for the works of artists who are now relatively unknown, such as Josep Cisquella and Josep Roca-Sastre, and those of very popular artists, such as Jaume Plensa, to complement each other when viewed in the same space. Furthermore, Subirachs's art returns to his native Poblenou, because Puigdollers wants to transcend the disciplinary boundaries of the foundation's three main museums and create a dialogue between painting, sculpture, and photography, which have been exhibited until now at Can Framis, Can Mario, and the Palau Solterra, respectively. The Subirachs work shown at Can Framis is DaphneWithin a reflection on masculinity, new masculinities, and violence against women, this contemporary theme can also be found in Nazario's drawing. Allegory of AIDSA project that perfectly reflects the foundation's artistic and healthcare aspects. And in that same space there is Blood bankby Frederic Amat, dedicated to the friends he lost to the HIV pandemic. Including works by Amat, often rare to see in public collections, is a welcome addition.

After the Vila Casas solo exhibition, the collection unfolds across the museum's three main halls. The first door is titled Matter as a vehicle, And you can see paintings and sculptures by artists from different generations, including Amèlia Riera, Miquel Vilà, Antoni Llena, Pep Duran, Susanna Inglada, Carme Sanglas, Santi Moix, and Perejaume. All these works evoke "matter as a alter ego which allows us to talk about profound issues,” as Puigdollers says, about a “human dimension” that is projected onto the environment. “This allows us to talk about some topics that perhaps the foundation hadn’t considered until now, such as sustainability and technology,” he adds.

The tour continues with The transgressed reality and ends with The act of existing. Puigdollers has exhibited a series of works that represent the artists' desire to go beyond the body and reach spirituality and death, among them a small meditation space featuring a painting by Alfons Borrell. "All the actions we have done in life, how do they have transcendence? How can gestures that seemingly end with us improve the lives of those who come after us?" Puigdollers asks.