TMC Tresors, Marxants, Col·leccions - El diàleg artístic entre Espanya i Amèrica

APPROACHES

TMC «Treasures, dealers, collections. The artistic dialogue between Spain and America (1850-1950)» is a "Research Group" (SGR-317) which has been funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya during the period 2009-2013 that is linked to the Department of Art History at the Universitat de Barcelona. Comprises members from the following universities: Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona), Universitat de València, Universidad Complutense (Madrid), Institute of Fine Arts (New York University), Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore), Université de la Sorbonne-Panthéon IV (Paris) and Università degli Studi (Genoa). It also includes members from the Museu Frederic Marès (Barcelona), the Museu d’Història de Barcelona, the Museu de Belles Arts de Sevilla, and has the support of the Center for the History of Collecting in America (Frick Collection, New York). The main aim of this project is to promote research, innovation and knowledge transfer, by focusing on the relations between artists and collectors in Spain and the US between approximately 1850 and 1950, the golden years of American collecting. This phenomenon, which has not been widely studied to date, touches on three broad areas of art history: art works, art dealers, and collections. Within this framework we focus on the following specific research themes:

1. The flow of art works towards the US (manuscripts, books, paintings, sculptures, tapestries, furniture, architectural items, and so on) as a consequence of the changes caused by disentailments, wars, and the new organization of the art market.

2. American collections and collectors: Archer Milton Huntington, Henry Clay Frick, Henry O. Hevemeyer, John Pierpont Morgan, Isabella Stewart Gardner. These great American collectors emerged during the American industrial revolution, which gave rise to the Golden Age of American collecting (Gilded Age).

3. The world of art dealers and agents: Joseph Duveen, Bernard Berenson, Francis Lathrop, Natili Randolph, Arthur Byne, Mildred Stapley, Raimundo i Ricardo Madrazo, Josep Pijoan, José Gestoso, etc.

4. Collections: use and function. The history of collections revolves around the history of objects and their metaphors. A collection is, by itself, a system of symbols, which socializes artists and objects in new locations, outside their normal social use, in a new system that subordinates everything to the collection.

5. A mutual discovery: In the 19th century, American artists such as Samuel Colman, Mary Cassat, and John Singer Sargent admired the Spanish artists of the Golden Age, especially Velázquez, while the Spanish artists Joaquin Sorolla, Federico Madrazo, Ignacio Zuloaga, Miquel Viladrich and Ramon Casas, among many others, felt the pull of the rich American market.

6. Architecture and collecting: This section is divided into three parts. The first one deals with the relation between collections and the buildings that house them, as well as their relation with the collectors’ role and tastes (for example, the Hispanic Society, created by Archer M. Huntington, or Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Boston Museum). The second part focuses on the importance of the ‘Spanish Revival Architecture’ style and the role of architects such as Julia Morgan, George Washington Smith and Addison Minzer, and the subsequent demand for Spanish pieces – objets d’art, coffered ceilings, ceramics, furniture and grilles. And the third part deals with the export of architectural pieces towards the US, with Arthur Byne as one of the most important agents and his client, William Randolph Hearst.

7. Art historians between Spain and America: Chandler Rathfon Post, Josep Gudiol, Josep Pijoan, Walter William Spencer Cook, Beatrice Gilman Proske, Elisabeth du Gué Trapier, and so on.

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