The latest research carried out by the Mathildenhöhe Institute-Darmstadt is the result of a comprehensive retrospective on the work of Joseph Maria Olbrich to be inaugurated in Darmstadt at the beginning of February 2010. The exhibition, entitled Joseph Maria Olbrich 1867-1908, Architect and Creator of Early Modernity, is being curated by Dr. Regina Stephan, professor of the history of architecture at the Mainz University of Applied Sciences, in collaboration with Vienna's Leopold Museum.

Experts on Olbrich's work consider him to be the great moderniser of the world and lifestyles, but his premature death and the destruction of many of his works during the Second World War meant that his output has perhaps not had the same international impact as other artists of his age, such as Henry van de Velde, Josef Hoffmann or Peter Behrens. This is why the instigators of the exhibition and catalogue aim to provide the general public with information about the relevance of the artistic legacy that Joseph Maria Olbrich left around 1900 in Darmstadt and other cities like Vienna or in the Rhineland.

This major retrospective has been made possible thanks to the latest research that has been carried out on this great architect and designer based on the interest created during the international conferences organised by Mathildenhöhe-Darmstadt on the occasion of the centenary of J. M. Olbrich's death (see coupDefouet nº 11). The exhibition includes reconstructions of Olbrich's projects through the use of original sketches, models, historical photographs and many objects from such diverse fields as graphic design, furniture, crafts and textile art.

The show can be visited from 7 February until 24 May 2010 at the Mathildenhöhe Institute-Darmstadt, with family days between 20 and 25 April, including a special games route for children on the 25^th.

Art Nouveau presents itself with good reason as breaking with the styles of the past, and promoting a "modern" environment based on a revival of forms and decorations. From the point of view of work produced, on the other hand, and this in spite of its social aspirations, it belongs to the tradition of the often-expensive technical experiments that brought fame to the luxury goods industries in France throughout the 19th century and until the early 20th century.

The objects as well as the preparatory drawings presented in this exhibition are evidence of the sophistication that French manufactories and creative artists brought to the art of living.

Catalan Modernisme is one of the most interesting movements in the broad process of modernisation that profoundly transformed the European art scene as a result of economic and social changes at the turn of the century.

Travelling exhibition.

Picasso expert Pierre Daix has written that the Catalan artist Santiago Rusiñol exercised a crucial influence on the young Picasso. This exhibition aims to explore this claim in depth and establish the elements of influence and confluence between the two artists by way of a comparative reading, both biographical and iconographic.

Organized jointly by the Museu Picasso and Cau Ferrat in Sitges, Rusiñol-Picasso will put on show for the first time the strong links between the two artists on the basis of the thesis developed by its curator, Eduard Vallès, in his recent book Picasso i Rusiñol. La cruïlla de la modernitat (Consorci del Patrimoni de Sitges, Barcelona 2008).

The paths of the two artists crossed at a time when their respective careers were in transition: Picasso was emerging from the academic tutelage of his father and the art schools he had attended and Rusiñol, though a highly acclaimed artist, was no longer the paradigm of modernity he had once been.

When Picasso first arrived in Barcelona Rusiñol was one of the city's most renowned artists. It is worth noting that a number of the themes the young Picasso tackled had their origin in pioneering works by Rusiñol. Picasso even painted his own versions of some of Rusiñol's pictures, an indication the works that made of how closely he followed the older man's work.

The great attraction that Picasso was to feel for the work of El Greco throughout his life first manifested itself precisely at the time when Rusiñol was championing him.

Rusiñol was also one of the first collectors of Picasso's work and thus one of the first to perceive their value. A number of these Rusiñol Picassos are in Cau Ferrat in Sitges, the private museum founded by Rusiñol which Picasso visited on several occasions, both as a young man and in his mature years. In fact, during the 1960s Picasso made some little-known illustrations based on Rusiñol's most famous work, L'auca del Senyor Esteve; these are also part of this exhibition, and show that the connection between the two artists still endured long beyond Picasso's Barcelona years.

The Scottish photographer Michael Thomas Jones portrays Modernisme in Barcelona just as it is, without concealing its contradictions or making any concessions to artiness. He depicts Modernisme as it has never before been seen in an exhibition, peopled by those who are today living or working in the architectural masterpieces designed by Gaudí and other Catalan architects.
"Gaudí and His Contemporaries in Modern Day Barcelona" is a joint exhibition by Barcelona City Council´s Institute for Urban Landscape and the Scottish Executive´s Architecture+Design Scotland. After having been on show in Glasgow until February 2010, it has finally arrived in Barcelona and can be visited in the Sant Salvador pavilion at the Hospital de Sant Pau from 24 April onwards throughout the summer.