"Dora Maar. Journey to Catalonia" in the National Archive of Catalonia

The National Archive of Catalonia (ANC) exhibits around forty photographs by the artist Dora Maar. They are portraits of a pleasure trip he took to Catalonia, basically to Barcelona, Tossa de Mar and S'Agaró, in which he captures the everyday life of these places. The exhibition, under the title Dora Maar. Trip to Catalonia, serves to show the public the acquisition that the institution made of part of the negatives of the photographer and also painter - known for having a relationship with Picasso - which appeared in a box in 2022 and which were auctioned in Paris The exhibition is curated by the art historian Victòria Combalía.

The National Archives of Catalonia (ANC) opened this Friday an exhibition that collects the portraits with the camera of the painter and photographer Dora Maar, also known because she maintained a relationship with the painter Pablo Picasso. Under the title 'Dora Maar. Trip to Catalonia', and curated by the art historian, Victòria Combalía, is material from 1933, when she visited Barcelona, Tossa de Mar and S'Agaró. "It was not an assignment. He came for pleasure", explains the person in charge of the exhibition.

They are photographs of people walking, sellers and fishermen in the Costa Brava area. "Street people, but above all he had a predilection for the poor" and also "the blind, because it may be that, since in surrealism the closed eyes represent the inner gaze, this interested him," says Combalía. The Rambla de Barcelona, the Mercat de la Boqueria and the Somorrostro, among others, are depicted.

The exhibition, which is located in a space of the institution, in Sant Cugat del Vallès (Vallès Occidental), is made up of 46 snapshots, which mix material from the curator and that acquired by the ANC in the summer of last year. Precisely, it was at an auction at the Artcurial house in Paris, after a finding of negatives inside a box. Maar, beyond being known for maintaining a relationship with Picasso between 1936 and 1946, occupied a prominent place in French photography. She was known because she practiced "street photography", explains the curator.

The exhibition will remain at the ANC until July 20 and is part of the Valais town's Light Festival, which kicked off last June 3 and has different activities scheduled until July 16.

Relationship with Picasso

Combalía managed to contact Dora Maar in the 90s (she died in 1997), although "everyone told me that she wouldn't answer the phone, but I was lucky" and rules out that Picasso conditioned her to abandon photography when they stay together. In fact, he points out that the "closeness" with him made him take up an interest in painting, an art he studied at the Lhote Academy in Paris, and later did it with photography.