The Sitges Museums will present on December 10th the new volume of research on Joaquim Sunyer, a key contribution on the 150th anniversary of his birth

The Sitges Museums present the book Joaquim Sunyer. Studies in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of his birth, a publication that becomes the most recent and complete synthesis on the figure and work of the Sitges artist. The volume will be released on Wednesday, December 10, at 6 pm, in the Gothic Hall of the Maricel Museum, in an event open to the public.

Coordinated by Ignasi Domènech, head of Collections and Exhibitions of the Sitges Museums, the book includes five studies prepared by specialists that provide new readings and perspectives on one of the most relevant creators of 20th-century Catalan art. Domènech highlights in the prologue that the publication “goes beyond the monolithic reading of Sunyer as a painter of ‘Mediterranean tranquility’ and claims his status as a complex, European and profoundly modern artist”.

A reference volume

With nearly 200 pages, the work becomes an essential tool for understanding Sunyer's career, his context and his influence. The chapters that make up the book are:

- Joaquim Sunyer: from luminism to noucentisme, by Vinyet Panyella

- Joaquim Sunyer and its critical reception, by Susanna Portell

- Joaquim Sunyer and the realism(s) of the interwar period, by Mariona Seguranyes

- Joaquim Sunyer and the graphic arts, by Eliseu Trenc

- Joaquim Sunyer in the collection of the MNAC's Drawing and Engraving Department (1896-1907), by Ignasi Domènech and Anna Viadel

The book is included in the bibliographic corpus of the Sitges Heritage Consortium and will be available in the Sitges Museums shop, expanding the editorial offer dedicated to creators linked to the territory.

The seminar: starting point and conceptual framework of the new book

The Joaquim Sunyer Seminar, held in December 2024 in the Saló d’Or of the Palau de Maricel in Sitges on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the artist’s birth, constituted the backbone of the project and the starting point of the volume now presented. Organized by the Sitges Museums, it brought together historians, researchers and specialists in modern art with the aim of reviewing Sunyer’s work from a current perspective, aligned with new studies and research methodologies. The conference offered a transversal approach to the artist that allows, precisely, the plurality of visions reflected in the book. The interventions addressed:

- The Parisian years (1896–1910): a key period for understanding the formation of Sunyer’s plastic language in contact with the European avant-garde.

- The return to Catalonia and his participation in the artistic renewal of Noucentisme, contributing a balanced and modern Mediterranean ideal.

- The evolution towards interwar realism, a less studied but decisive stage for understanding the artist in all his creative maturity.

- The critical reception, which over the years has shaped a certain image of Sunyer that is now being revised and expanded.

In addition to the lectures, the seminar included parallel activities that contributed to giving depth and context to the figure of Sunyer. Among these, a guided visit to the Maricel Museum to observe the artist's works up close and analyze them in situ, and a special session of La Peça del Mes, dedicated to Dona en un cafè (1900), which allowed for a deeper look into one of the most significant pieces from his initial stage. Both activities were conducted by Vinyet Panyella, former director of the Sitges Museums.

This seminar not only generated a space for reflection and debate among specialists, but also operated as a platform to update the discourse on Sunyer, correcting simplified views and highlighting his international dimension. The book that is now being published is, therefore, the realization of that collective exercise of critical review and an essential resource for continuing to study and disseminate his work.