MACBA Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona
We are delighted to be part of the various communities in the Raval and the city of Barcelona, of the artistic community and all those who believe that art can enhance life. MACBA functions as a community of knowledge and discovery, complicity and critique, exchange and dialogue. An array of proposals, activities, programmes, publications, exhibitions and encounters configures the everyday life of this communal space that is our Museum. We share and celebrate a Collection comprising art from the second half of the twentieth century to today. A Collection that supports the universal right to the riches of art. At MACBA, different things happen every day and you are free to find your own way of navigating through them. Drop in and join us!
Program
Location and Access
Fees
Free access to the reading and family space for the exhibition MACBA Collection: Prelude. Poetic Intention located in the MACBA Studies and Documentation Centre (CED); also to the exhibits of the Capella MACBA and the MACBA Store.
Accessibility
At MACBA, we see diversity as beneficial for collective experimentation and learning. As a result, we try to ensure that everyone gets a chance to enjoy each and every one of our spaces, activities and aesthetic proposals. The MACBA accessibility program provides a series of resources to facilitate and improve your museum experience.
You can request accessibility services and resources at reception. MABA provides wheelchairs, hearing loops for visitors with hearing aids, monocles, magnifying glasses or visits with sign language interpreters, among others. There are access points for those with reduced mobility, and well as free access (attendant included) to exhibits for those with credentials certifying their disabled status.
If there are queues, persons with a disability or reduced mobility will have the right to preferential access in the advance purchase entry queue.
Learn more about accessibility
Visits
In the Museum
Reading and family space
This is the reading and family space for the exhibition MACBA Collection: Prelude. Poetic Intention. A place to ‘be’. A place to relax and share a moment with those around you.
Discover the space
Services
Recommendations for visitors
The library
Discover the MACBA Studies and Documentation Centre (CED), specialized in contemporary artistic practice. It houses an ample collection of catalogues, essays, publications and audio-visual documents. The library is a free public service located on level 3 of the CED. Come and visit!
Visit the Library
Visit MACBA from home
MACBA – Museum of Contemporary Art
Until 1995, when the Museum of Contemporary Art – Museu d’Art Contemorani (MACBA) – was opened in Raval district, a general and International Museum of Contemporary Art lacked in Barcelona.
The most famous artists of Catalonia – Picasso, Dali, Miró – have their own foundations, who present their works in the special Museums.
The MACBA houses important works of international artists in changing exhibitions. The best known are likely to be Tàpies, Fontana, Saura and Klee. Focus is set on the second half of the 20th Century. Since the exhibitions every 3-6 months change and it is worth being informed about the current exhibitions before a visit.
In MACBA mainly special exhibitions named artists – sculptors, painters, and filmmakers – will take place. But the MACBA also invite to join. So, regular workshops, conferences, film projects, audiovisual performances take place. Its origins the MACBA had in 1959, as the art critic Alexandre Cirici Pellicer suggested the opening of a museum for contemporary art. Together with Cesáreo Rodriguez Aguilera, he contributed the first works of art. The – clearly politically motivated – exhibition “Art and Peace” was shown 1963, which showed the two art lovers also the limits of political provocation in times of Franco’s dictatorship.
Their cooperation had ended.
In 1985 seized the then Minister of Culture of Catalonia, Joan Rigol, the idea of a museum for contemporary art again. In 1986, the preparations were stopped by a new city council. The Casa de la Caritat was the building constituting the museum in Barcelona. In 1987, the MACBA Foundation, in 1988 then a consortium of city government, the Generalitat and MACBA Foundation, which ultimately ordered the construction. In 1995, then the Museum of Contemporary Art was given to the public.
The American architect Richard Meier-designed a somewhat cool-looking building since its opening to mixed reactions today by visitors. The sobriety is reinforced by the contrast to the gloomy partly acting District Raval.
- MACBA: tickets for admission
- Articket: free admission to 6 museums
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More museums in Barcelona
Articket BCN – Barcelona Card – Picasso Museum – Aquàrium – Fundació Joan Miró – MEAM – Moco Museum – MACBA – MNAC – Gaudí Experience 4D – Poble Espanyol – CosmoCaixa – Egyptian Museum – Museu del Modernisme – Museu Marítim – Història de la Ciutat – Història de Catalunya – Fundació Antoni Tàpies – Museu Frederic Marès – CaixaForum – CCCB – Chocolate Museum – Museu del Disseny – Museu de Cera – Museu Blau – Hemp Museum – Olympic and Sports Museum – El Born CCM – Other museums
Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona
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MACBA buildings
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How to get to the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona
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Barcelona Museum of Modern Art on the map
Once in the Place d’Anges in the El Raval district, only the blind will not see the modern building, which is the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona. Behind the walls of this building, flashy with a catchy spot, in the glasses of which the Old Town is sadly reflected, amazing works of art are concentrated, which were born no earlier than the 2nd half of the 20th century and until today.
Located right in the center of Barcelona, the Museum of Modern Art is housed in a building that opened in 1995.
The Museum of Modern Art is a project by Richard Meyer, an architect from the USA.
Museum halls display the best works from the end of the previous century up to the present day.
The museum has examples of the art of masters of various schools and trends:
- expressionists
- modernists
- as well as works of art by Catalan painters from the era of historicism of the Romanesque period
The museum collection is divided into three categories:
- 40-60 years
- 60s-70s
- contemporary art
Most of the exhibits of the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona are works by Catalan masters, as well as creations by Spanish artists created after 1945. However, a number of works by foreign artists are also presented here.
Buildings MACBA
The Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona is currently housed in three buildings in the Plaza de l’Angels (Plaça dels Àngels) in the Old City area. The main building of the museum, built in modern style, differs sharply from neighboring buildings, and only by its appearance rebuilds anyone in the mood of modern art.
The white-washed main building has a glazed southern façade, from which tourists can look at the square, where there are always a lot of young people and skateboard fans.
The Monastery of the Angels (Convent dels Àngels), located on the other side of the square, is also part of a modern art museum. Currently, this building is operated as a cultural center with additional exhibition space.
Also on Àngels Square is the third building of the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona, the Research and Documentation Center (Centre d’Estudis i Documentació). In it:
- Research and Training Centers MACBA
- archive
- library on the topic of contemporary art.
How to get to the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona
You can get there by metro L1, L2 to the Universitat station, or by L3 to the Pl. Catalunya.
Also, by bus number 120 to the stop Pl dels Àngels.
Don’t forget to buy your entry ticket in advance to avoid long queues.
You can do it online at the link on the official ticket platform.
Museum of Modern Art of Barcelona on the map
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MACBA – Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art
Sights of Barcelona
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November 13, 2020
MACBA – Barelona Museum of Contemporary Art – located in the Old Town, in the Raval district, which is famous for its “originality” – and I must say, it’s huge, modern
architecture, the building combines straight and sinuous lines in design, contrasting surprisingly with its surroundings.
The building, by the way, is perhaps the most interesting thing in this museum, as is often the case with museums designed to accommodate contemporary art.
A vivid example of this is the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, which resembles a magic box, the value of which exceeds the significance of the contents by orders of magnitude. Exactly the same definition would be quite
appropriate for the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, the building for which was built in 1995 by the famous and talented architect Richard Meyer.
However, perhaps I’m wrong. The fact is that I am not a big fan of the ultra-modern art of Barcelona – and the exposition of the museum presents just such works, and in
various genres – photography, painting, sculptures, installations, sometimes striking with their gigantic dimensions almost from an aircraft hangar – fortunately, the dimensions of the building quite allow this …
MACBA is dedicated to the works of the second half of the 20th century. There are few works in the permanent exhibition, but temporary exhibitions are regularly held, and here it’s like a lottery: if you’re lucky, you can suddenly
stumble upon quite suitable, and sometimes even outstanding works of contemporary Barcelona (and not only) creators.
In 1959, the art historian Alexandre Chirichi Pellicer considered it necessary to create a museum of modern art in Barcelona. Between 1960 and 1963 Chirichi and Cesareo Rodríguez Aguilera led
a group of people who began to collect a collection in order to create the foundation for the future museum.
In February 1963, a certain stir was caused by the opening of the exhibition “Art and Peace”, designed to expand the narrow limits of what was allowed during the Francoist dictatorship.
In 1986, the Barcelona City Council invited North American architect Richard Meyer to lead the project for a new museum. The Department of Culture of the City Council instructed art critics
Francesc Miralles and Rosa Keralt to write a report that will define the philosophy of the future museum. In 1987, the MACBA Foundation attracted private companies to the project.
MACBA was officially opened on November 28, 1995.
Address: Pl.