Artur Carbonell. Beyond the mask

Arthur Carbonell. Beyond the Mask
The largest retrospective exhibition ever dedicated to Artur Carbonell, which brings together all his facets: painter, theatre director and set designer from Sitges

From November 21, 2025 to March 22, 2026
Sala Vaixells of the Palau de Maricel – Museu de Maricel

From Tuesday to Thursday, from 10am to 2pm, and Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 10am to 5pm

Open Days

Thursday, November 20, 2025, from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Friday, November 21, 2025, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday, December 3, 2025, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday, January 7, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday, February 4, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday, March 4, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Guided Tours

Sunday, December 14, 2025, at 11.00 a.m. (Catalan) and 12.00 p.m. (Spanish), both of a sensory nature

Saturday, January 17, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. (Catalan)

Saturday, March 21, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. (Catalan) and 12:00 p.m. (Spanish)

Introduction

The Sitges Museums present Artur Carbonell. Beyond the Mask, a retrospective exhibition that offers, for the first time, a comprehensive vision of the artistic career of Artur Carbonell (Sitges, 1906–1973) —a total creator who moved naturally between painting, theater and scenography, leaving a profound mark on 20th-century Catalan culture.

Carbonell lived in the effervescent town of Sitges, heir to the modernity of Santiago Rusiñol and Joaquim Sunyer, and knew how to connect this spirit with the new European avant-gardes. A painter of exquisite sensitivity and an innovative stage director, his figure sums up the universal vocation of a small Mediterranean town that, throughout the 20th century, projected itself into the world as one of the epicenters of artistic modernity.

The exhibition, organised by the Sitges Heritage Consortium, offers a journey through Carbonell's two great passions: painting and theatre. Through a dialogue between visual works, sets, posters and personal documents, visitors discover a creator who lived "beyond the mask", in constant transformation and faithful to an ideal of beauty and freedom.

The project brings together more than 170 pieces from 18 institutions and more than 30 private collections, including outstanding works from the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. It is, without a doubt, the largest retrospective exhibition ever made of Artur Carbonell, an artist whose work is in the main museums of the country, but who is still little known to the general public, despite having been one of the greatest exponents of magical realism and Catalan surrealism and a pioneer of avant-garde theatre in Spain.

The exhibition presents previously unpublished drawings and oils restored for the occasion, from family collections. Carbonell's work is not alone in this exhibition, it is accompanied by artists from his creative context such as Joaquim Sunyer, Joan Miró, Federico García Lorca, Alfred Sisquella, Jaume Sans, Pere Jou and his friend Pere Armengou.

General information

Title: Artur Carbonell. Beyond the Mask
Dates: November 21, 2025 – March 22, 2026
Places: Sala Vaixells of the Palau de Maricel and Ground floor of the Maricel Museum
Organized by: Sitges Heritage Consortium
Director: Txema Romero Martínez
Curator: Ignasi Domènech Vives and Mariona Seguranyes Bolaños
Design and installation: TAT_lab, Dos de Nou, ILM BCN
Catalog: Published by the Sitges Heritage Consortium (November 2025)

The exhibition – The dialogue between painting and stage

Artur Carbonell. Beyond the Mask is structured in two complementary areas —the pictorial and the scenic— that dialogue to reveal the complexity and internal coherence of his creative universe. The tour starts from the Sala Vaixells of the Palau de Maricel and culminates on the ground floor of the Museu de Maricel, in an itinerary that symbolizes the passage from the canvas to the stage, from the image to the action.

The pictorial sphere – The poetry of magical realism and surrealism

The first space, the Sala Vaixells of the Palau de Maricel, brings together drawings and paintings, along with documents, photographs and publications that place Carbonell within the European artistic currents of the interwar period.

His painting, which starts from Mediterranean noucentisme, evolves towards magical realism, a style that combines formal precision with a poetic and enigmatic atmosphere. In this field, Carbonell mirrors the serenity of Joaquim Sunyer and the introspective strength of Josep de Togores, but also the aesthetics of Christian Schad, Jean Hugo, Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró.

His connection with surrealism is explicit in works such as Christmas Eve (1928) or Two Figures (1931), from a private collection and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, where reality and dream intertwine in a symbolic space full of silence and mystery. These paintings, together with Portrait of Pere Armengou (1928) —one of the icons of Catalan magical realism—, show an artist capable of transforming everyday life into visual poetry.

His pictorial production also reflects the imprint of the group L’Amic de les Arts, the Amics de l’Art Nou (ADLAN) and Josep Dalmau, a key figure of Catalan modernity, and connects with the European movements of new objectivity and interwar realism.

Each work is an open window to an inner world, full of lyricism, balance and silent tension.

The theatrical area – The pioneer of the scenic avant-garde

The second area, located on the ground floor of the Maricel Museum, is dedicated to his intense activity as a director and set designer. Carbonell conceived of theatre as a total art, where painting, music, words and movement were fused.

In 1930, with the staging of Orfeu by Jean Cocteau at the Teatre Casino Prado in Sitges, he became the first creator in the State to perform an avant-garde play. Carbonell's set design and direction transformed the stage into an abstract and poetic space, inspired by the new French aesthetic, and placed Sitges on the map of the European avant-garde.

Seventeen years later, in 1947, Carbonell once again demonstrated his nonconformist spirit by staging Doña Rosita la soltera o el lenguaje de las flores by Federico García Lorca, the first performance of Lorca in the State during the Franco regime. In the midst of the post-war period, and mocking censorship, Carbonell turned the theatre into an act of cultural resistance and homage to freedom of expression.

This area includes original posters, models, costume designs, stage photographs and pedagogical materials from his time at the Institut del Teatre, where he exercised a decisive influence as a teacher and mentor.

His sets —both pre-war experimental and post-war variety shows— show a highly sophisticated visual language, close to surrealism and the metaphysics of De Chirico, always with a poetic conception of light and space.

This theatrical section closes the exhibition and, symbolically, returns the viewer to the central idea of ​​the project: art as a mask that reveals more than it hides.

Artur Carbonell, a total artist of Catalan modernity

Artur Carbonell i Carbonell (1906–1973) is one of the great names yet to be discovered in the history of Catalan art. Born in Sitges and into a family of Americans, his career sums up the cosmopolitan spirit of a town that was at once a refuge, a laboratory and a springboard for modernity.

His early artistic training was marked by his admiration for Joaquim Sunyer, with whom he shared a friendship and a sensitivity for Mediterranean classicism. But Carbonell soon felt attracted to the avant-garde, and through L’Amic de les Arts, Magí Albert Cassanyes, Josep Dalmau and the Amics de l’Art Nou (ADLAN), he delved into the language of magical realism, purism and poetic surrealism.

His painting is characterised by a serene figuration, with precise lines and calculated composition, where mystery emerges from the everyday. His female figures, hieratic and elegant, express a new modern and intellectual femininity, heir to the role of women in the European avant-gardes. In his surrealist works, Carbonell explores the world of dreams and the subconscious with a plastic calligraphy close to Miró and Cocteau.

At the same time, Carbonell developed a passionate stage career. His work as a director, set designer and teacher at the Institut del Teatre positioned him as one of the innovators of Catalan theatre in the 20th century. His productions combined formal rigour, visual sense and a modern sensibility that anticipated the multidisciplinary conception of contemporary performing arts.

Beyond the artist, Carbonell was a discreet, cultured and refined man, who knew how to protect his identity behind his own masks. This exhibition aims to give him back his voice and the place he deserves within Catalan modernity, presenting him as what he really was: a total artist, capable of turning theatre into painting and painting into poetry.

Featured works

Pictorial field (Sala Vaixells of the Palau de Maricel)

Portrait of Pere Armengou (1928)
One of the icons of Catalan magical realism, with a hieratic gaze and a masterful use of light. The portrait combines the Mediterranean austerity of Joaquim Sunyer with the symbolic and psychological air typical of the new German objectivity.

Christmas Night (1928)
A painting of a dreamlike and metaphysical nature, which represents his clearest incursion into surrealism. Magí Albert Cassanyes described it as a “work full of mystery and anguish, of a disturbing beauty”.

Sketch of Carrer de Sitges / La Davallada (1927) in pencil for the final oil
One of the first works of his interwar period, where he portrays a Sitges landscape with volume and architectural rhythm. It is a declaration of intentions: to convert his native town into a modernist setting.

Portrait of Maria Dolors Bertran (1929)
A modern woman, confidant and muse. Carbonell combines the volumetric rigidity of the new objectivity with a restrained sensuality. It symbolizes the empowered woman that runs through all of his work.

Two figures (1931) and Assassinated landscape (1935). Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
Two of the works where the influence of the new language of surrealism can be seen most clearly, with the poetics of Joan Miró and the metaphysical horizons of Giorgio de Chirico.

Poster for the Sitges Book Festival (1928 and 1929)
Designs that show his connection with European purism and machinism. They anticipate his scenographic aesthetics, in which simple forms and color take on symbolic value.

Theatrical and scenographic field (Maricel Museum)

Scenography project for Orfeu by Jean Cocteau (1930)
The work that marked his theatrical consecration. This production, at the Casino Prado in Sitges, is considered the first avant-garde performance in Spain. The project shows a white, symbolic stage, with impossible stairs and metaphysical atmospheres.

Sketches of sets and costumes for the Varietés de Sitges (1940–1950)
Series of drawings that reveal his most popular and festive stage. The sets combine bright colors and cubist geometries with lyrical elements. They represent the fusion between plastic art and local theater.

Documentation of the Institut del Teatre (1940–1960)
Texts from his classes and talks are preserved, such as Experiencia y consejos de dirección escénica (1956), where he presents his theory on theatre as a total art, heir to the European avant-garde.

Photographs of the stage and portraits of actors (1930–1970)
Unpublished images of performances at the Casino Prado, portraits of amateur actors and snapshots of Sitges' theatrical life. They testify to Carbonell's role as a director, teacher and creator of atmospheres.

Models and stage plans (various works, 1930–1950)
Three-dimensional models and designs are shown that exemplify his technical skill and his mastery of the stage space. His theatrical architecture is of an almost plastic pictorial precision.

Original program of Orfeu (1930)
Exceptional historical document: the manual program of the premiere of Orfeu, with handwritten annotations by the artist and J.V. Foix.

Numerical summary

110 works including paintings and drawings

27 photographs

12 posters

1 sculpture

More than 20 original documents and theatrical materials

Total: more than 170 pieces.

Institutions and lending individuals

Institutions:
Girona City Council – MHG (Rafael and María Teresa Santos Torroella Collection) · Archivo y Biblioteca del Centro Federico García Lorca, Granada · Archivo del Casino Prado de Sitges · Archivo Fotográfic de Barcelona · Archivo Histórico del COAC · Archivo Municipal Histórico de Sitges · Ateneu Barcelonès · Biblioteca-Museu Víctor Balaguer · Biblioteca Santiago Rusiñol · Fonds Cocteau, Université de Montpellier Paul-Valéry · Fundació Ave Maria · Fundació J. V. Foix · MAE – Institut del Teatre · MNAC · Musée Jean Cocteau (Menton) · Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid) · Museu de Maricel (Sitges) · Sala Parés (Barcelona)

Galleries:
Galería El Cisne (Madrid) · Galeria Marc Domènech (Barcelona)

Private collections and collaborators:

Guiomar Amell · Andrew Anderson · Família Armengou Bertran · Anna Barrachina Sala · Família Buckley · Sílvia Camps Gumà · Dolors Cubiló Travé · Francesc Fontbona · Pilar Güerre Zapater · Heirs of David Jou Andreu · Lluís Jou · La Mirada Ingenua Collection · Bienvenida Mairal Hernández · Joan Ramon Malagelada i Benaprès · Ignacio Maragall · Jordi Marsal · Ricard Mas · Rafael Masó · Nina Ordeig Masó · Amelia Mateo · Christopher Maurer · Vinyet Panyella · Joan Enric Prats Güerre · Montserrat Ramos · Neus Salvatella · Lourdes Sánchez Rodrigo · Martí Sans · Javier Santos · Joan Sella Montserrat · Gonçal Sobrer · Meritxell Verneda.

Artur Carbonell i Carbonell (Sitges, 1906-1973)
Portrait of Pere Armengou
1928
Gouache drawing on canvas