In Praise of Drawing. The Manuel Puig Collection

NOTICE TO EXHIBITION VISITORS

For conservation reasons, the ambient temperature in the Sala Vaixells of the Palau de Maricel will be maintained between 18 and 21 degrees Celsius. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in helping us preserve this artistic heritage in the best possible conditions.

 

From May 16 to October 19, 2025, the Sala Vaixells of the Palau de Maricel will host the exhibition In Praise of Drawing. The Manuel Puig Collection, an exceptional exhibition that brings together for the first time a selection of 72 works from one of the most unique and personal private drawing collections in Catalonia. The proposal offers a transversal and in-depth journey through six centuries of the history of drawing, highlighting the technical, thematic and stylistic richness of a fundamental discipline in Western art.

The exhibition, organized by the Sitges Heritage Consortium, takes place in the Sala Vaixells of the Palau de Maricel and constitutes a unique opportunity to discover 21 works that have never been publicly exhibited before, a fact that reinforces the documentary and artistic value of the collection and underlines the desire to share with the public an experience of discovery and awareness about drawing.

Furthermore, the exhibition takes a step forward in the visibility of female artistic creation. It highlights the presence of five women artists of great international relevance such as Mela Muter, with a nude study of sculptural energy; Natalia Gontxarova, linked to the Ballets Russes and with a vital stay in Sitges; Suzanne Valadon, a pioneer in female self-representation and the psychological strength of portraiture; Remedios Varo, a surrealist artist with a deeply personal and symbolic vision; and Paula Rego, considered one of the most powerful figurative painters of the second half of the 20th century.

The exhibition unfolds in four thematic areas —Academy, Faces, Stories and Landscapes— and encompasses works from the 16th to the 20th century, with names such as Giulio Clovio, Vicente López, Anton Raphael Mengs, Santiago Rusiñol, Joan Miró, Pablo Ruiz Picasso, Giorgio de Chirico, Auguste Rodin, Andy Warhol and many others. The diversity of techniques (pencil, ink, watercolor, charcoal, pastel, gouache, etc.) and supports reflects the vitality of drawing as an expressive language and vehicle for artistic research.

The praise of drawing claims the dignity and validity of a discipline often considered minor within the hierarchy of the arts. The proposed tour allows the public to delve into an intimate, direct and unartificial look at the creative process, and at the same time discover works with a great symbolic, narrative and emotional charge. The exhibition also highlights the fundamental role of collecting as a cultural act and transmitter of knowledge.

With this exhibition, Sitges Museums expand their commitment to research, dissemination and accessibility of the visual arts, offering visitors an exceptional opportunity to enjoy an artistic heritage that is often invisible but of great quality and cultural value.

THE THEMATIC AREAS OF THE EXHIBITION

Academy. Studies from life

One of the aspects that has always been part of the idiosyncrasy of drawing is the historical role that the discipline has had in the process of training artists. From the education of gesture, the mechanical repetition of copying exercises, the study of prints or the observation and representation of the attitudes of models from life, all this set of resources has contributed to the acquisition of a working methodology aimed at solving practical problems. However, this academic training typology, very much framed in a progressive learning, conditioned the possibility of acquiring the status of artist if the different challenges of a long chain were not overcome. This dynamic was damaged by the irruption of the phenomenon of modernity and by an antagonistic conception with the aim of homogenizing artistic creativity.

Faces

The theme of the representation of one's own face or that of another model is one of the most recurring motifs in the history of art. What could be considered an exercise in vanity should actually be interpreted as the automatic response to the need to give vent to the creative drive. This desire would explain the prominence of the biographical or autobiographical genre in the collection and how it gained a higher impetus with the arrival of modern sensibility. This coincided with the Romantic era, a time when authors wanted to carry out a gesture of self-affirmation and vindication of their own creative condition.

Stories, stories, narrations

The history of artistic images includes a desire to represent the world, to make it understandable. Like other disciplines, drawing was traditionally mirrored in literary stories that served as models and helped it to construct visual narratives presided over by the principle of natural verisimilitude. The break with the previous model, indebted to literature and history, meant the incorporation of the artist's imagination. Dreams, unconscious memories, emotions and other more subjective sources contributed to feeding the objective of re-presenting visible reality. All the stories - mythological, biblical, historical - help us understand both a worldview of the period and the cultural background of the illustrators.

Landscapes and still lifes

Although the representation of the landscape in the collection does not have the level of prominence that other themes have, some of the episodes are very relevant and allow us to appreciate the interest that the genre aroused from the 19th century onwards. At this time, landscaping became one of the most cultivated themes. Panini's drawing is very illustrative because it brings us closer to a type of landscape representation indebted to picturesque and monumental classicism. However, the rest of the visions of the natural environment leave aside the realistic or naturalistic image. This will make room for the artist's subjectivity, adopting artistic forms influenced by the different avant-garde movements. Among these, we can mention Fauvism, Cubism and Surrealism.

ARTISTS PRESENT IN THE EXHIBITION

The five women artists present in the exhibition are Mela Muter, Natàlia Gontxarova, Suzanne Valadon, Remedios Varo and Paula Rego. The rest of the artists are Henry Spencer Moore, Auguste Rodin, Pierre Bonnard, Josep Camarón Bononat, Pablo Ruiz Picasso, Joan Miró, Paul Delvaux, Federico Zuccaro, Giuseppe Cesari, Cesare Fracanzano, Bartolomeo Passerotti, Luca Giordano, Joan Conchillos, Santiago Rusiñol, Miquel Barceló, Manuel Salvador Carmona, Antoni Tàpies, Anton Raphael Mengs, Henri Matisse, Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Giorgio de Chirico, Benedetto Luti, Balthus, Raoul Dufy, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Manolo Martínez Hugué, Cornelius Schut III the Younger, Bartolomeo Gagliardo, Carles Casagemas, Luca Cambiaso, Isidre Nonell, Juli González, Pau Roig, Sisto Badalocchio, Lucas Valdés Carasquilla, Marià Fortuny, Giovanni Franceso Barbieri Il Guercino, Antony Gormley, Giulio Clovio, Louis Cretey, Angelino Medoro, Édouard Vuillard, Joaquim Sunyer, Giovanni Battista Castello Il Genovese, Vicente López, Eugenio Lucas Velázquez, Mariano Andreu, Achille-Émile-Othon Friesz, Erick Heckel, Albert Gleizes, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Frank Auerbach, Sean Scully, Serge Poliakoff, Juan Gris and Fernand Léger, and works attributed to an anonymous Genoese, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and Cristofano Allori.

THE 21 UNPUBLISHED WORKS

These correspond to an anonymous Genoese, and to artists such as Giuseppe Cesari, Joan Conchillos, Mela Muter, Auguste Rodin, Natàlia Gontxarova, Joan Miró, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Santiago Rusiñol, Pablo Ruiz Picasso, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Cornelius Schut III the Younger, Vicente López, Eugenio Lucas Velázquez, Pau Roig, Joaquim Sunyer, Antoni Tàpies, Erick Heckel, Fernand Léger, Serge Poliakoff and, finally, a drawing attributed to Bartolome Esteban Murillo.

EXHIBITION HOURS

From May 16 to October 19, 2025
Tuesday to Thursday, 10am to 2pm
Friday to Sunday, 10am to 7pm

Special hours
August 23 (Festa Major). Only from 10am to 2pm

Closed days
August: 24 / September: 11am and 23

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

May 15, 6pm
Inaugural talk by the exhibition curators, Bonaventura Bassegoda and Francesc Quílez
Gòtic Hall. Maricel Museum

May 30, 6pm
The Piece of the Month
Christ with the Symbols of the Passion, by Giulio Clovio
Bonaventura Bassegoda

Rocamora Hall. Maricel Museum

May 31 and October 11
Guided tour for Friends of the Museums and Sres. del Ram throughout the year
11 am (Catalan) / 12 pm (Spanish)
Sala Vaixells. Palau de Maricel
Pre-booking

May 31, from 7 pm to 8:30 pm
Life drawing session, led by Daniel Torrent
Association of the Catalan Club of Naturism
Maricel Museum. Price: €7
Pre-booking

June 7
Sketchers Meeting
Guided tour
10 am - 10.30 am – 1 pm - 1.30 pm
5 pm - 5.30 pm – 6 pm - 6.30 pm

Drawing session
Maricel Palace, 11 am - 2 pm
Cau Ferrat i Maricel Museum, 3 pm - 6 pm
Pre-booking

July 17, 6 pm
Family workshop for beginners in drawing, by Núria Corretgé
Racó de la Calma. Price: €4

September 26, 7:30 p.m.
Film screening:
Portrait of a Woman on Fire, directed by Céline Sciamma
Gòtic Hall. Maricel Museum. Price: €5

October 17, 6 p.m.
Introductory Sketching Workshop by Blanca Benítez
Blue Room. Maricel Palace. Price: €12

MONTHLY GUIDED TOURS

June 14, 11 a.m. (Catalan), adapted for people with hearing loss. Sign language tour / 12:00 (Spanish)

July 12, 11:00 (Catalan) / 12:00 (Spanish)

July 19, 5:00 (Spanish) / 6:00 (Catalan), adapted for people with blindness or low vision

August 9, 11:00 (Catalan) / 12:00 (Spanish)

September 13, 11:00 (Catalan), adapted for people with deafness. Sign language tour / 12:00 (Spanish)

October 11, 5:00 p.m. (Spanish) / 6:00 p.m. (Catalan), adapted for people with blindness or low vision

Price: €7

OPEN DOORS

May 15, 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

May 18, 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

August 26, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

September 24, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

October 12, 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

AUDIODESCRIPTIONS

This format is available for three representative works of this exhibition, such as 'Horse rider' by Federico Zuccaro, 'Self-portrait' by Suzanne Valadon, and 'Guitare et compotier' by Juan Gris. You can listen to them by scanning the QR in the Sala Vaixells of the Palau Maricel or through this page, or read them in pdf format in the downloads section.