Galeries Dalmau was an art gallery in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, from 1906 to 1930 (also known as Sala Dalmau, Les Galeries Dalmau, Galería Dalmau, and Galeries J. Dalmau). The gallery was founded and managed by the Symbolist painter and restorer . The aim was to promote, import and export avant-garde artistic talent. Dalmau is credited for having launched avant-garde art in Spain.Mark Antliff and Patricia Leighten, A Cubism Reader, Documents and Criticism, 1906–1914, University of Chicago Press, 2008, pp. 293–295Carol A. Hess, Manuel de Falla and Modernism in Spain, 1898–1936, University of Chicago Press, 2001, p. 76,
In 1912, Galeries Dalmau presented the first declared group exhibition of Cubism worldwide,Commemoració del centenari del cubisme a Barcelona. 1912–2012, Associació Catalana de Crítics d'Art – ACCA with a controversial showing by Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Juan Gris, Marie Laurencin and Marcel Duchamp. The gallery featured pioneering exhibitions which included Fauvism, Orphism, De Stijl, and abstract art with Henri Matisse, Francis Picabia, and Pablo Picasso, in both collective and solo exhibitions. Dalmau published the Dadaist review 391 created by Picabia,Francis Picabia, 391, several issues available online and gave support to Troços by .Troços, digitalization available in the ARCA Portal (archive of antique Catalan magazines)Archive of Troços magazineJosep Maria Junoy, Arte & Artistas (Primera serie), Barcelona, Llibreria de L'Avenç, 1912
Dalmau was the first gallery in Spain to exhibit works by Juan Gris, the first to host solo exhibitions of works by Albert Gleizes, Francis Picabia, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí and Angel Planells. It was also the first gallery to exhibit Vibrationism.M. Lluïsa Faxedas Brujats, "Barradas' Vibrationism and its Catalan Context", RIHA Journal 0135, 15 July 2016
The gallery presented native pre-avant-garde artists, tendencies and manifestations new to the Catalan art scene, while also exporting Catalan art abroad, through exhibition-exchange projects, such as promoting the first exhibition by Joan Miró in Paris (1921). Aware of the difficulty and marginality of the innovative art sectors, their cultural diffusion, and promotion criterion beyond any stylistic formula, Dalmau made these experiences the center of the gallery's programming. Dalmau is credited for having introduced avant-garde art to the Iberian Peninsula. Due to Dalmau's activities and exhibitions at the gallery, Barcelona became an important international center for innovative and experimental ideas and methods.Sebastià Gasch, El arte de vanguardia en Barcelona (Avant-Garde Art in Barcelona), Destino. Año 1962, No. 1287-1290 (Abril), p. 48
Background Josep Dalmau
Born in Manresa, 1867, Josep Dalmau early on devoted himself to painting. In 1884, he moved to Barcelona where he discovered the Modernisme painter Joan Brull. Dalmau's painting were included in several salon exhibitions in Catalonia. In 1899 (8–28 July) he was given his first and only solo exhibition, at Els Quatre Gats, a popular meeting place for artists throughout the modernist period. He continued exhibiting his works throughout his lifetime.Elisenda Andrés Pàmies, Les Galeries Dalmau, un projecte de modernitat a la ciutat de Barcelona, 2012–13, Facultat d'Humanitats, Universitat Pompeu FabraWilliam H. Robinson, Jordi Falgàs, Carmen Belen Lord, Barcelona and Modernity: Picasso, Gaudí, Miró, Dalí, Cleveland Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Yale University Press, 2006,
At the age of thirty, he emigrated to Paris where he lived for six years, and studied painting conservation in Bruges and Gant, Belgium.
In 1906, after having finished his studies in restoration, Dalmau returned to Barcelona. He worked as a technical restorer for Museu de Barcelona. In 1914 he restored the complex work of Marià Fortuny, The Battle of Tetuan, 1862–1864.The Battle of Tetuan by Marià Fortuny, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Wikimedia Commons In 1915 he restored the altarpieces for the Board of Museums, known as Junta de Museus de Catalunya.Bru i Turull, Ricard, El comerç d'art japonès a Barcelona, 2009–2010, Universitat de Barcelona
Dalmau opened an antiques gallery in 1906, Carrer del Pi, 10, becoming his first showroom, lasting from 1906 to 1911. The establishment basically dealt with antique objects, and later extended with a section of modern art. The first documented exhibition of modern art was in 1908, with the exhibition by Josep Mompou i Dencausse and some Japanese prints.El Poble Català, Barcelona, núm. 694, gener 1908, p. 2 The following year Dalmau hosted a joint exhibition of Joan Colom i Agustí, and Isidre Nonell. Dalmau is largely credited for having introduced avant-garde art to Barcelona, and more generally, to Spain. His exhibitions, while promoting international artists, connected Catalan artists with the world of art outside of Spain.Fèlix Fanés, Salvador Dalí: The Construction of the Image, 1925–1930, Yale University Press, 2007,
Les Galeries Dalmau
Mid-1911 announced the expansion of the gallery. It was made possible by the revenue obtained in the market of antiques, especially through the import and export from France. It was also made possible from the proceeds of an exhibition of modern and old master portraits and drawings, organized by the City Council of Barcelona the previous year, in which Dalmau participated as an antique dealer with some valuable works by El Greco, Feliu Elias (aka Joan Sacs) and two works by Francisco Goya, Portrait of Manuel Godoy, valued at 15,000 pesetas and Retrato de niño, 8,000 pesetas.
The new establishment located in the Gothic Quarter at Carrer de Portaferrissa, 18, was baptized with the name "Galeries Dalmau" with the goal of combining exhibitions of old masters, modern art, and new art. Dalmau was poised to import foreign avant-garde art into the city of Barcelona, widening the city's cultural horizons.
The exhibition space of the gallery was located in the inner courtyard of a house, with a glass ceiling, typical of photography studio or industrial warehouse. It had a threaded mechanism that regulated the light coming in through the skylight. The space was divided by wooden partitions that did not reach the ceiling, and divided into two or three interconnected spaces, and one office. Access to the gallery passed through a long corridor adorned with anonymous unrestored old master landscapes and still lifes.
For the coming years, this became the platform featuring pioneering exhibitions of Fauvism, Orphism, De Stijl, and abstract art with Francis Picabia, Kees van Dongen, Joaquín Torres-García, Henri Matisse, Juliette Roche, Georges Braque, André Derain, Auguste Herbin, Fernand Léger, André Lhote, Gino Severini, Louis Valtat, Félix Vallotton, Hans Arp, María Blanchard and others in both collective and solo exhibitions.
Art historian Fèlix Fanés writes of the gallery: To overcome the difficulties of the home market, Dalmau introduced contemporary Catalan art to foreign markets. This strategy, together with the arrival of numerous avant-garde artists in Barcelona during the First World War, served to consolidate the modern image of the Galeries Dalmau. The dealer paved the way for many young people in the tough world of advanced art, having a decisive influence, for example, on the early career of Joan Miró.
Selected exhibitions 1912: Picasso, Torres-García In 1912 two exhibitions took place consecutively: Joaquín Torres-García, a painter of the Noucentista period; and Pablo Picasso, drawings from his Blue Period (February – March 1912).Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso a Catalunya, Edicions Polígrafa, S.A., Barcelona, 1975, p. 196Exposició de dibuixos i pintures de Joaquim Torres García, Galeries Dalmau, 1912 (exhibition catalogue)Picasso, Veu de Catalunya, 7 March 1912
1912: Exposició d'Art Cubista
From 20 April to 10 May 1912, Josep Dalmau exhibited, for the first time in Spain, in his new space located at Carrer de Portaferrissa, 18, a repertoire of Cubist artworks. This was the first worldwide group exhibition solely dedicated to Cubism. Some of the paintings had been shown at the 1911 Salon d'Automne in Paris. The news of this salon had already spread across Europe, and numerous article had been written about the new art. In Catalonia, Eugenio d'Ors wrote of the salon two months before the Dalmau show, 1 February 1912, "Pel cubisme a l'estructuralisme" published in "Pàgines Artístiques de La Veu de Catalunya", within which Ors depicted Cubism as a provisional stage, a consciousness or rational apprenticeship to build "structuralism". This article generated controversy, reflection and discussion between Joan Sacs, Joaquim Folch i Torres, and Joaquín Torres-García.
In Paris, the Cubist works at the 1911 Salon d'Automne resulted in a public scandal that brought Cubism to the attention of the general public for the second time. The first was the organized group showing by Cubists in Salle 41 of the 1911 Salon des Indépendants. Cubist paintings had already been exhibited at the 1910 Salon d'Automne (by Jean Metzinger, Robert Delaunay, Henri Le Fauconnier and Fernand Léger), but not under a group banner or name.Daniel Robbins, Jean Metzinger: At the Center of Cubism, 1985, Jean Metzinger in Retrospect, The University of Iowa Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Trust, University of Washington Press, pp. 9–23 The term "Cubisme" was enunciated for the first time for the occasion of the first exhibition to include Cubism outside France: at the Brussels Indépendants, June 1911.Daniel Robbins, 1964, Albert Gleizes 1881 – 1953, A Retrospective Exhibition, Published by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, in collaboration with Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund And now, the second exhibition beyond the French border was about to take place; the first devoted entirely to Cubism.Josep Bracons Clapés, Les grans exposicions d'art del segle XX, Barcelona Metròpolis Mediterrània, Ajuntament de Barcelona
This was the backdrop upon which the Barcelona exhibition of Cubist art was set. Josep Dalmau had travelled to Paris to see the 1911 Salon d'Automne.Mercè Vidal, L'Exposició d'Art Cubista de les Galeries Dalmau 1912, Edicions Universitat Barcelona, 1996, He also visited a Cubist exhibition at Galerie d'Art Ancien et d'Art Contemporain (20 November – 16 December 1911), 3 rue Tronchet, where he met several Cubists, including Metzinger. The Dalmau exhibition comprised 83 works by 26 artists, including the Salon Cubists of Salle 41. David Cottington, Cubism in the Shadow of War: The Avant-garde and Politics in Paris 1905–1914, Yale University Press, 1998, He later attended the Indépendants 1912 Salon des Indépendants (March–May).
Mercè Vidal, author of L'Exposició d'Art Cubista de les Galeries Dalmau 1912 writes that Dalmau's initiative was not at random, nor the result of chance. 'The presentation of the Cubists in Barcelona came preceded by the interest of the Catalan artists and critics for that movement, from the moment they had first heard news.'