"Esclats d'un instant, 70's. The contribution of the artists to the art fund of the Avu newspaper" at the Girona Art Museum

The Art Museum of Girona presents the exhibition Esclats d'un instant, 70's. The contribution of the artists to the art fund of the Avui newspaper , curated by Elina Norandi and which looks at this collection in terms of gender. The exhibition, whose inauguration will take place on March 11 (12 noon), will be open until January 28. El fons d'art de l'Avui va néixer l'any 1975 quan es va iniciar el procés de creació del diari Avui, el primer diari en llengua catalana que es publicaria des de la Guerra Civil espanyola.

In order to increase the founding capital, the journalistic company Premsa Catalana, SA made a call to the country's artists to donate a work of theirs. There were many who responded to the request, sharing the climate of enthusiasm generated by a publication in Catalan and the endless illusions that this fact aroused. When, finally, in 1976 Avui went on sale, a collection of almost four hundred works had been assembled.

All this art fund, and the one that was incorporated in 1994 after a second call from the newspaper, was acquired by the Generalitat de Catalunya in 2011, when the company Premsa Catalana, SA went bankrupt and was deposited in the Girona Art Museum. In 2019, the Museum began to investigate this fund and presented a first exhibition dedicated to the different readings that the variety and richness of the collection can generate. This second exhibition has been proposed from a gender perspective.

With this exhibition, the museum wants to analyze the participation of women artists in this art fund and, specifically, those who gave their work during the first collection, in the 1970s, and which coincided with a strong mobilization of women to claim the rights that Franco had forbidden them. Numerous artists donated their works in accordance with their political convictions, but the postulation was also an important opportunity to make themselves known - in an artistic field that was still very unfavorable to the intervention of women - and to be part of a collection that, it was already guessed, would be important. The collection consists of one hundred and nine works signed by women.

Many of them are essential names in Catalan art today; artists who had already been working professionally for some time. But, in addition, some showed in their work their anti-Franco position and their political commitment. Others still fought for their inclusion in the artistic field, to be able to exhibit and sell; for them, appearing in this fund was a magnificent opportunity to be able to exhibit their pieces and for their name to begin to be heard.

We will be able to see works by Carme Aguadé, Carme Garcés, Aurora Gassó, Núria Llimona, and Raymat, Pilar Font, Maria Girona i Benet, Esther Boix, Rosa Siré, Isabel Serrahima, Conxita Sisquella, M. Teresa Sanromà, Montserrat Mainar, Lola Anglada , Isabel Mas, Maria Cirici, Magda Bolumar, Susina Amat, Roser Capdevila, M. Josepa Colom, Maria Teresa Roca, Pilarín Bayés, Carme Bosch, Pilar Perdices, Aurora Altisent and Balmas Engracia Casas, M. Dolors Balanyà, Esther Palomer, Anita Solà d'Imbert, Alicia López, Creus, Chon Hernández, Colita, M. Rosa Andrés Graells, Conxa Ibàñez Escobar, Angelina Alòs, Rosa Amorós, Emília Xargay, Carme Coma, Madola (M. Àngels Domingo), Amèlia Riera Toyos, Sefa Ferré, Montserrat Gudiol, Carme Llobet Llambrich, Maria Bofill, Mercè Morey, Antonia Aguiló Pascual, Elisenda Sala, Roser Agell i Cisa, Montserrat Torras Sans, Fina Miralles, Eulàlia Grau, Rosa Farré Aurèlia, Muñoz Ventura, and Maria Assumpció Raventos.