The exhibition “Modernisme. Art, Workshops, Industries” offers a view of the movement focusing on the applied and decorative arts and artistic crafts that played the most important roles. At the same time it is intended to highlight and champion the work of the many craft workshops and the various industries that contributed to implementing modernisme through the recovery of old procedures and the introduction of new materials and techniques. With this, better and more competitive products were achieved while at the same time incorporating modern commercial distribution systems to meet growing demand.

Beyond an aesthetic trend, modernisme was an ideological current with a firm desire for modernity. The new forms and ideas took firm root in Barcelona, where the construction of the Eixample involved a strong growth in construction and its subsidiary industries. These forms and ideas were quickly propagated throughout the country and in all social classes, establishing a legacy that provided Catalonia with some of its most important cultural heritage.

The exhibition offers a route through the principal arts, crafts and industries of modernisme, showing how they are integrated into a single idea of beauty intended to go beyond the historical styles, taking nature as a model.