The Tàpies Foundation is one of the most difficult museums to keep up with, from a local tourguide point of view: they rotate the artwork in display in their "permanent" collection every few months, so it's hard to develop this feel of closeness and almost intimacy we often get to acquire with pieces in other museums such as the Picasso, Miró or MNAC museums where despite some rotation their best works are almost always displayed.
This is why I decided to freshen up my knowledge and resources and joined a public guided tour last Saturday afternoon. I was not the only official guide there, as my colleague Paquita Vázquez had had the same idea, and I found her insightful comments as enlighting as the museum's guide explanations! By the way, I also want to thank her for sending me her own pictures of the famous giant Sock sculpture, even if in the end I decided the ones I took with my phone were good enough for the blog.
The guided tour was structured in 3 parts: first going to the rooftop terrace to see the Sock, then visiting the permanent collection on Tàpies works, and finally visiting the temporary exhibit, nowadays Organigrama, by Ibon Aranberri.
I was a bit disappointed to realize that some good 10min were lost just going up and down stairs. It is true that being an old industrial building connecting the different levels wasn't easy, but itinerary efficiency is one of the rules for a great tour.
And probably if the order had been different we'd have saved up some time and the guide would have been more relaxed, as I could sense she had to respect tour time restrictions (which is not always the guide's responsibility or choice) that forced her to rush over the works.
Also, the Tàpies collection was displayed in one single floor way too small. From the over 700 pieces in their collection only... 18 pieces between paintings, drawings and sculpture were shown! That was probably the most disappointing thing. It felt more like an art gallery than a true museum.
Plus, as I was mentioning before, there wasn't much time to go in depth in most of them so all in all we were given a rough introduction to key themes that repeat through Tàpies evolution (crosses or T's, the sublimation of the humble, materials...).
The rest of the tour (some 10-20min, according to the timings the guide had told me) was dedicated to the temporary exhibit in the basement. But I must admit I didn't stay because my boyfriend and I were invited to a double birthday family dinner in his hometown, Sant Sadurní d'Anoia in the Wine Country, and we had to drive there.
I understand the Foundation's commitment to promote other contemporary artists. The Miró Foundation works along that path aswell, but at least their permanent collection is much more consistent. So it's probably time the Tàpies Foundation finds a larger venue that allows them to continue supporting the younger generations but also puts in relief Tàpies works and approaches them better to the general public. Now it's the time to create deeper relationships between his works and the people, instead of a dizzyness originated by excessive rotation.
By the way, if you are interested in getting the best out of your visit to any Barcelona Museum, don't forget to book one of my Museum Tours.
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