July 9, 2015 – Rafael Masó was one of the most important Catalan architects of the fin de siècle. The house in Girona where he was born and has lived for many years has become a museum. Until 12 September 2015 the Casa Masó shows medals from the Masó collections.
The exhibition in Casa Masó shows nearly 400 medals. © Jordi Puig / Fundació Rafael Masó.
Casa Masó ‘Medal Portraits: The Spectacle of Bronze’ displays six sections containing nearly four hundred pieces, made during the period of Masó’s life by over one hundred and sixty medallists from some twenty different countries.
Arnold Harting, Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer, 1927. © Jordi Puig / Fundació Rafael Masó.
The exhibition catalogue reproduces a selection of medals showing the importance of the portrait during those thrilling, albeit convulsive fifty years.
Josef Hermann Tautenhayn, Austrian Architect’s Association to Otto Wagner on His 70th Birthday, 1911. © Jordi Puig / Fundació Rafael Masó.
The Casa Masó collection is a constant source of surprises and wonders that under the management of the Rafael Masó Foundation is becoming material for study and knowledge on the heritage and history of the city of Girona.
Pierre Turin, Bearer of Flowers, 1926. © Jordi Puig / Fundació Rafael Masó.
The inauguration, in 2013, of the new temporary exhibition room on the ground floor of Casa Masó coincided with approval of the Temporary Exhibition Plan for the following five years, which is the roadmap that sets out the Foundation’s work in research and dissemination.
Maurice Delannoy, Drama, 1928. © Jordi Puig / Fundació Rafael Masó.
One of the objectives of the exhibitions at Casa Masó is, precisely, to study and draw attention to the rich, diverse artistic legacy of the Masó family that is kept there.
Karl Goetz, Death Selling Passage Tickets. RMS Lusitania, 1915. © Jordi Puig / Fundació Rafael Masó.
Just a few months later part of the collection was given a global reach when it became the third in Catalonia to be included in the Google Cultural Institute and presented within the Google Art Project.
B.H. Mayer, Chronos Sees His Time Running Out, 1927. © Jordi Puig / Fundació Rafael Masó.
We should not forget, however, the importance of being able to see the real objects at Casa Masó itself, as is the case of the magnificent and unique numismatic collection featured in this book and exhibition.
Charles R. Samuel, La Brabançonne. Belgian National Anthem, 1930. © Jordi Puig / Fundació Rafael Masó.
The cataloguing and study of two medals belonging to Casa Masó brought the museum in contact with Rossend Casanova, art historian, collector and specialist in modern numismatics, who not only helped to establish the value and interest of the pieces, but also suggested that they should be exhibited within the context of the life of Rafael Masó, from 1880 to 1935. Rossend Casanova curated the medal exhibition and was its main lender.
Free entrance
Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm
From 21 March to 12 September, 2015
Exhibition catalogue:
Rossend Casanova, ed. Medal Portraits: The Spectacle of Bronze. Girona: Úrsula / Fundació Rafael Masó, 2015. Catalan-English edition, 192 pages, 14 €.
Sample pages are available here.
To purchase copies please contact Casa Masó directly via email.
To learn more about the medals and the museum go to the Casa Masó website.
You can visit the Casa Masó exhibition at the Google Cultural Institute by clicking here.