Oriol Maspons, the useful photography at the CNMA

For the first time the different aspects of his work are shown to the public, and unpublished or very little known images are exhibited. Oriol Maspons, the useful photography is the result of the research carried out on the fund that the photographer himself deposited in the The Catalonia National Museum of Art in 2011: more than 7,000 photographs on paper, negatives and documents.

This extraordinary archive has been digitized and inventoried thanks to the Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation and Agrolimen, and the exhibition is supported by the photographer's family.

Oriol Maspons played a key role in the renewal of photographic language in Spain in the 1950s and 1960s, first from the field of amateur photography and since 1957 as a professional. Contrary to the conception of photography as an object of aesthetic contemplation, Maspons defended applied or useful photography.

The objective of this exhibition is to broadly review his work, contextualizing its production and supporting research in the recovery of documentary material - books, magazines, album covers, etc. - in a way that allows to know also the final destination of the author's photographs as well as the reception of his work in the specialized and generalist media of the time.

Maspons had entered the Photographic Association of Catalonia in 1952, but very soon he opposed the aesthetic values ​​defended by the Group and its operation, which earned him a strong opposition to any of his innovative initiatives. His article "Salonismo", published in the magazine Photographic Art in 1957, was a harsh criticism on the conservative group sphere.

In 1955 he moved to Paris, where he frequented the photographic environments and met Brassaï, Cartier-Bresson and Doisneau, among others. The interviews he conducted with these photographers were published in Arte Fotográfico and allowed Spanish professionals and amateurs to peek into foreign photographic creation. Also in those years its participation in the AFAL group of Almeria was essential. Upon his return to Barcelona, ​​in 1957, he decided to professionalize and form a partnership with Julio Ubiña.

The photographer was part of the so-called gauche divine, a heterogeneous group of young intellectuals and artists, models, filmmakers, writers and architects, who in the late 1960s in Barcelona rebelled against the official Franco culture. Its main protagonists posed in front of his camera and he portrayed their scenarios.

Throughout his long career, Oriol Maspons devoted himself to reporting, portraiture, fashion and advertising. He worked for the main magazines of the time, such as La Gaceta Ilustrada, Destino, Cuadernos de arquitectura, Triunfo, Interviú, L’Oeil, Paris-Match, Bocaccio, Expression, Elle, etc.

His friendship with Esther Tusquets made him participate from the beginning in the creation, by the Lumen publishing house, of the collection Palabra e Imagen where photography and text were treated equally. In it, he published his first book in 1961, La caza de la perdiz roja (The Hunt for the Red Partridge), with texts by Miguel Delibes, which would be followed by Toreo de salón (Salon Bullfighting), with texts by Camilo José Cela, and Poeta en Nueva York (Poet in New York), with poems by Lorca, both works along with Julio Ubiña.

He illustrated numerous books among which Arquitectura gótica catalana (Catalan Gothic Architecture) stands out due to its refined craftmanship, written by Alexandre Cirici and also edited by Lumen in 1968.

The Maspons fund at the National Museum

The Maspons archive preserved by the National Museum contains the complete work of the photographer, who in 2011 deposited his archive in the museum. These are more than 7,000 photographs on paper, as well as negatives and different photographic materials from which this great exhibition was investigated and prepared.

Thanks to the Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation, the museum was able to acquire a set of 200 images from this archive, very representative of the different stages of the photographer, and thus was able to start the documentation and digitization work. In 2011 some 3,000 images were digitized.

Recently, thanks to the sponsorship of Agrolimen, the work of scanning and cleaning this important archive could be completed.

In this second phase the museum has been able to treat some 2,000 photographs on paper and finalize the inventory, which has brought to light numerous unpublished images.

Unpublished or little known work

Among the novelties that have come to light are photographs from his early days taken in Paris, London and Ibiza in the 1950s, which reflect life on the streets, people waiting for the subway, the nightlife and also images of models on the beach. Also shown are images of reports made in Cuba, Nicaragua and South Africa, which were never published.

Related activities

Maspons.- useful dialogues

Maspons Night.-

Hours.-