From Renoir to Miralda

Renoir, Picasso, Miralda, the cubists and Duchamp are among some of the well-known artists kicking off this exhibition season in Barcelona, in an autumn aimed at getting more of the general public back into the city's galleries. What follows is a selection of some of the highlights that can be seen in the coming weeks and months.

The Barcelona HQ of the Fundación Mapfre has already begun the season strongly, beginning on September 17 with one of the biggest names in French impressionism, Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The exhibition focuses above all on the painter's view of women, but also includes work from such artists as Van Gogh, Degas, Bonnard and Pablo Picasso.

In fact, the work of the latter can also be seen at the MNAC, in an exhibition analysing the influence of Romanesque art on Picasso's work. The 40 pieces on display will be distributed among the institution's permanent Romanesque collection from November 16. Picasso will also feature in the exhibition, Cubisme i guerra. El cristall dins la flama, that centres on the impact of the First World War on the artistic avant-garde established in Paris. The exhibition can be seen at the Museu Picasso from October 21. Meanwhile, the Malaga artist will also be included in the exhibition, Un Thyssen mai vist, an anthology of 62 works from the Thyssen collection in Madrid, which opens on November 3 at Barcelona's CaixaForum.

This autumn, the Fundació Miró also opts for one of the big names of 20th century art, Marcel Duchamp, in an exhibition starting on October 29 focused on chess as a recurrent theme in historic avant-garde movements. Closer in time but still a big name in contemporary art, Antoni Miralda has an exhibition opening on October 20 in the Macba, with a complete retrospective of all his work done during the time he spent in the United States.

On September 27, La Pedrera began a new exhibition devoted to the different artistic stages of Basque sculptor Jorge Oteiza that runs until January 22. Also in September, the MNAC opened a retrospective of Lluïsa Vidal, the only woman of Catalan Modernism who managed to live from her painting, and yet who is still little known to the wider public. Meanwhile, the main exhibition of Casas Year will open on November 10. Ramon Casas, la modernitat anhelada, can be seen, not in the Catalan capital, but in the Museu Maricel in Sitges.

As for artistic trends, the CaixaForum is preparing an exhibition on the mutual influence between art and film over the 120-year history of cinema, while the CCCB, from October 25, will have 1.000 m² de desig. Arquitectura i sexualitat, an exhibition that focuses on real and imagined buildings and architecture that have a relationship with western sexual culture.

Then, on November 4, the Macba opens the exhibition, Gelatina dura, an analysis of underground and dissident art between 1977 and 1992, while the Arts Santa Mònica will analyse the relationship between art, violence and digital technology in the exhibition 'Tecnologies de la violencia' from October 18. Also on the topic of violence, from November 11, the Fundació Tàpies will open a new collective exhibition on the effects of ETA terrorism on art, going from the Argel talks between 1987 and 1989 until the final ceasefire came about in 2011.