Prague, Paris, Barcelona. Photographic Modernity from 1918 to 1948
TICKET SALESDate: 18th of May 2010 - 12nd of September 2010
Price: € 3.50
The avant-gardes had an enormous impact in Europe in the period between the wars. After Paris, Prague became a second centre of Cubism and was home to a number of artists. In 1918, the advent of democracy in Czechoslovakia marked the start of two decades of cultural prosperity: photography, graphics and the cinema gave rise to works that influenced the whole world. Paris, too, with its cultural freedom, attracted artists from abroad, many of whom were photographers: Man Ray, Brassaï, François Kollar and Germaine Krull and, fleeing from Fascism in Germany, Gisèle Freund, Gerda Taro and Robert Capa. Paris was reaffirmed as a place where ideas circulated, and where galleries, agencies and publications proliferated.
At the same time, Catalonia also joined the avant-garde and refreshed the dominant aesthetic in the cultural circles of the time. Illustrated magazines and books from Europe introduced many influences and photography was no exception to this, especially in fields such as advertising and architecture.
The relations between Prague and Paris have often been exhibited and studied. This exhibition sets out to reveal the contributions by Catalan artists. In this way, the MNAC is offering a fresh reading that will help put Catalan avant-garde photography where it belongs on the international scene.
Exhibition organized by the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya
With the sponsorship of Agrolimen 
Curator: David Balsells, Head curator of photography, MNAC, in collaboration with Joan Naranjo, photography historian and member of the MNAC’s photography advisory committee.
Exhibition catalogue: Praha Paris Barcelona
Counterfeit Coinage. From Antiquity to the Euro
Date: 11st of Juny 2010 - 08th of May 2011
Counterfeiting has been a travelling companion of coinage right from the very start. The issuing authorities have combated it with the law, through punitive measures, and with technology, encouraging the improvement of the minting of coinage. Additionally, in each period practical methods for exposing forgeries have also been introduced. The exhibition sheds light on this true clandestine story but way of some of the most notable pieces featuring in this long, continuous and exciting adventure stretching from Antiquity to the present day.
The first section presents counterfeiting in Hispanic Antiquity, from the earliest fractions forged by the Greeks at Empúries to the false coins made by Iberians and Romans. It also reveals the appearance of extremely harsh Roman and Visigothic legislation against forgers. The second section is devoted to counterfeiting and the clipping and debasement of metal in the Middle Ages. In order to control forgeries and the falsifying of the legal weight of legitimate pieces, the use of scales and specific weights spread. The third section takes a look at counterfeiting in the modern age. The mechanization of coinage manufacture was introduced in this period and the edges of coins were milled to avoid pieces being clipped off. In the fourth and final section the focus shifts to the contemporary period and the forging of banknotes and payment cards. Lastly, another type of modern counterfeiting is presented: the copying of old coins for the purpose of deceiving collectors.
Exhibition organized by the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catlunya
Curator: Albert Estrada-Rius, curator of the Numismatic Cabinet of Catalonia
Exhibition catalogue: La moneda falsa de l'antiguitat a l'euro
