Ara in English - Thyssen Museum

The centenary that claims one of the masters of the Catalan avant-garde

Aniol Costa-Pau — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 05:01:00 +0000

Modest Cuixart, a founding member of the legendary Dau al Set group, is one of the key figures of the Catalan avant-garde of the second half of the 20th century. Often overshadowed by names like Joan Brossa or Antoni Tàpies, his contribution is equally decisive in the renewal of post-war plastic language. Born in Barcelona in 1925, but settled in Palafrugell since 1970, he developed a large part of his creative career surrounded and inspired by the landscapes of Empordà. This summer, coinciding with the centenary of his birth, the Espai Carmen Thyssen in the monastery of Sant Feliu de Guíxols dedicates the exhibition "Links, organized in collaboration with the Cuixart Foundation, which can be visited until October 18.

Prayer

Toni Sala — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 14:17:16 +0000

Finally the other day a crab pinched me. I was drying myself, I had just come out of the sea, I put my foot in a crack in the rock and the crab was there, the size of a lizard, emerald and shiny like a jewel. I appreciated the pinch, it had never happened to me, it took a long time, I have been bathing in the same cove for decades.For decades I have been bathing in the same cove, which, precisely because it is always the same, is different each time. This only happens in nature. The cove has its best day every day. I can assure you because over the years I have gained a physical, territorial, and sensitive knowledge of it like a second skin. Perhaps too sensitive. Over the years I have witnessed the changes: how the mother-of-pearls became extinct, how a large part of the seagulls and sea urchins disappeared, how the water warmed up, how the dinghies and kayaks, groups of swimmers, and, this very summer, tent camps multiplied. Massification is fatal in the only place on the planet and the only moment in history when the word densification has been sold in a positive light. The administration is already like a private business. I am from a family of hoteliers, but one of the happiest days of my life was when Mayor Collboni announced that he was taking to Barcelona the Thyssen painting collection that was to be installed in my city.

Cultural policy

Toni Sala — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 11:09:41 +0000

It's not easy to explain the sadness and anger with which I received the news a few months ago that the Thyssen Museum in Sant Feliu de Guíxols was going to Barcelona. Any reader of this column knows how much I love the painting. I assumed they would pave the entire area surrounding the monastery with a hard floor, like that of a department store, which burns in summer and slips when it rains; that they would cover the old-fashioned sandstone and turn such a noble and characteristic part of my city into another hard square. Nothing made me want the pavement to bury Roman remains: there was a higher purpose. I was even willing to applaud the project of a Madrid architectural firm to fill the space where the monastery cloister should be with a concrete sarcophagus that would block out the spiritual radiation from the very heart of our history. I admit it, I was willing to completely depersonalize the Porta Ferrada—a monument so emblematic that it gives its name to a festival that brings the best music in the world here every summer.

Gifts from museums around the world are made in Barcelona

Cristina Martín Valbuena — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 05:01:05 +0000

MNAC, Picasso, Thyssen, Reina Sofía, Guggenheim, Tate, MoMA, Van Gogh, Munch… All these museums have in common that the gifts they sell are designed in Barcelona. With a history spanning more than 30 years, Ming Productions is the company that designs many of the notebooks, magnets, stuffed animals, and mugs found in their stores. With factories in Badalona, Montgat, and Dallas (United States), the company is the result of all the ideas that Benjamín Villa, its CEO and founder, could have.