2016_11_10_MUN_InauguracionBranguli

"Brangulí is the most outstanding photographer of the first generation of photojournalists in Spain," said Rafael Levenfeld, member of the artistic direction of the Museo Universidad de Navarra and curator of the exhibition "Josep Brangulí. 1909-1935".

The Museum has added 315 works by Josep Brangulí to its Collection, on loan from Fundación Telefónica. The exhibition "Josep Brangulí. 1090-1935", sample a part of this new acquisition: 123 photographs that document, with the most aesthetic and creative look of its author, the Barcelona before the Republic, its historical landmarks, the urban transformation and the social life of Barcelona.

The press period of the first third of the century in Spain is a period of which very few originals are preserved in the Museum's Photographic Collection. "For this reason, the incorporation of an entire block by an author of Brangulí's quality is a qualitative and quantitative leap," Levenfeld emphasized.

In this exhibition project the efforts and dedication of Fundación Telefónica and the Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya come together. The former as producer and the latter as guarantor of our history and heritage. For her part, Laura Fernández Orgaz, the director of collections at Fundación Telefónica has argued the donation saying that "the institution she directs has followed a line of recovery of archives of photographers such as Luís Ramón Marín, Antoni Arissa and Josep Brangulí. In this journey, we have always counted on the partnership of Rafael Levenfeld and Valentin Vallhonrat. That is why we decided to donate these pieces to the Museo Universidad de Navarra: because they are the artistic directors of the Museum, they know well the work of the artists we are interested in and because we know that the donated pieces can dialogue with the rest of the Collection of the Navarrese art center".

The sample comes from the exhibition entitled "Brangulí", presented for the first time in November 2010 at Fundación Telefónica, in Madrid. Unlike the former, the corpus of the Museum's sample focuses on photographs taken from 1909 to 1935, Brangulí's most fruitful period, "when he defined his work and produced his most important work, at final, the period of his greatest creativity". The images taken by the author from 1936 onwards, until 1945, the year of his death will be kept, for the time being, in the Museum's storerooms. "In the Collection, we have many photographs of that important historical period of Spain, taken by various artists, national and international. We are working on a future sample around the Civil War. Then it would be the time to show the work of Brangulí during those years. But we do not have the project designed in its entirety and the date is yet to be determined," says Rafael Levenfeld.

"Brangulí stands out above the rest because of the aesthetic strength of his photographs."

Photographs began to be published in the press at the end of the 19th century, but it was not until 1909, the year in which Brangulí illustrated the tragic week of Barcelona, that magazines illustrated with photos on their pages became massively important. "Brangulí heads that group of photojournalists and documentarists, and stands out above the rest because whatever he catches with his camera he does it in a masterful way, by the aesthetic force and his totally involuntary artistic keys", explained the curator. Some of the magazines and newspapers in which Brangulí's work was published are La Hormiga de Oro, Cu-Cut!, ABC and Blanco y Negro, among others.

The 123 positives that can be seen in the exhibition are current prints and have been made from the digitization of the original negatives, which have been kept in the Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya since 1992. Rafael Levenfeld and Valentín Vallhonrat, from the Artistic Direction of the Museum, worked for more than two years and made a meticulous selection of Brangulí's file staff , which consists of about one million negatives, respecting the thematic structure and contents that the author himself designed.

Once the original negatives were selected, they were superficially cleaned without chemical agents. The plate was digitized and then underwent a digital restoration of the image, always respecting the author's work . Finally, a print was made on cotton paper with mineral pigments. Thus, from half a million glass plates and flexible materials, a selection of 315 images was made, of which 123 are shown here , with the city of Barcelona as a backdrop.

The selection presents 19 thematic series by the author. "Josep Brangulí. 1909-1935" opens with the one that documents the effects of the Tragic Week of Barcelona in 1909. But other historical, industrial or social themes also appear, such as the Catalan society before the Republic, the work of the shipyards, some urban reforms such as the opening of the Via Laietana, the Universal exhibition of 1929, sports such as boxing and the nightlife of Barcelona. The exhibition will be valid until March 5, 2017.