JOSEP BRANGULÍ 1909-1935

Josep Brangulí 1909-1935 presents a selection of more than 120 works by Josep Brangulí, the Catalan photographer whose archive was acquired in 1992 by the Generalitat and is currently deposited in the Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya. This exhibition project unites the efforts and dedication of Fundación Telefónica, which produces the exhibition, and the Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya, as guarantor of our history and heritage.

All of Brangulí's 306 printings have been donated to the Museum's collection by Fundación Telefónica.

The exhibition opens with the series that Brangulí dedicated to documenting the effects of the Tragic Week in Barcelona and is divided into sections dedicated to historical, industrial and social themes: Catalan society in the era of Primo de Rivera, the work of the shipyards and urban reforms such as the opening of the Via Laietana, the Universal Exposition of 1929, the arrival of the Second Republic, boxing and the city's nightlife, until the arrival of the Spanish Civil War.

Brangulí's photographs are, in many cases, taken on professional commissions, but seen today they provide ample documentation of the enormous political, economic and social transformations that took place in Spain during the first four decades of the 20th century. Brangulí thus appears, along with other photographers such as Alfonso or Marín, as a pioneer not only of photojournalism, but also of other areas of professional photography in Spain. An observer -as the curators of the exhibition, Valentín Vallhonrat and Rafael Levenfeld, point out- "who accompanied the city in which he lived, attentive to the changes, attentive to its inhabitants and their chores".