Program 'Art, War, and Memory': Exhibition 'Drawings from the National Museum. Sparks of War (1914-1918)'

In the summer of 1914, Santiago Rusiñol began writing a series of articles titled 'Sparks of War' for the 'Glosari' published in L'Esquella de la Torratxa. In these contributions, he openly supported France, which he identified as the highest expression of art and European civilization against the threat of German expansionism. This exhibition, featuring a selection of around seventy drawings from the collection of the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints of the National Museum, re-evaluates the cultural heritage of the best public collection of works on paper in Catalonia. It also helps to understand how cartoons and illustrations intended for periodicals during the Great War served as a cathartic exercise for both artists and readers, allowing them to overcome fears and uncertainties generated by the outbreak of an international conflict at their doorstep.