21/11/11
Fashion designs 1914-1935. Luxury and modernity. November 2011-april 2012
In order to introduce the wealth of its funds, the Historical Archive of the City of Barcelona organizes regularly the exhibitions A taste of the Archive. The proposal to be seen at present on the showcases of the hall of the House of the Archdeacon shows thirty five documents —the majority being advertising forms of fashion shops from Barcelona, some as well known as Santa Eulalia or La Siberia—, a brilliant stage of the local graphic design illustrating a key period of the modernization of the city through the habits, the role of the woman, etc.
Rescued from its ephemeral condition thanks to the far-sighted task of the archivists of past decades, these prints are shown now to the contemplation of the public by its graphic values. They illustrate the several trends of the Art Deco, in a time where the progress of the technical procedures assured a perfect reproduction of those multicolor designs. Their authors are a Gabriel Perès, Josep Porta or Josep Rojas, who not only made career in Catalonia but also had a solid international activity; but also Gerard Carbonell and other which seem to have worked only in their homeland. A group of excellent draughtsmen, until now little known, are put in value in this sample, which also reveals the importance of these prints as historical documents for the knowledge of the economy, the habits or the clothing.
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