Artur Ramon Art at 100: Barcelona’s Centenary Exhibition from Zurbarán and Goya to Picasso and Barceló

Few galleries anywhere can say they have been looking at art for a hundred years. The Artur Ramon Art centenary exhibition in Barcelona, titled La pervivència d’una mirada. 100 anys d’Artur Ramon Art — roughly “The Lasting Gaze” — celebrates exactly that. From 29 October 2026 to 5 February 2027, the family firm of antiques dealers and gallerists on Carrer de Bailèn presents about thirty works spanning almost nine centuries, from a medieval sculptor to Miquel Barceló. Unusually for an anniversary show, every work is for sale.

A century in thirty works

The gallery’s official centenary site names the stars of the selection: the Master of Cabestany, the anonymous twelfth-century Romanesque sculptor whose work is found on both sides of the Pyrenees; the Spanish Golden Age painters Francisco de Zurbarán and Jusepe de Ribera; Francisco de Goya; the Catalan modernista Ramon Casas; Pablo Picasso, whose formative years were spent in Barcelona; and the Mallorcan painter Miquel Barceló. The gallery has not published a full checklist; press listings in Bonart give a figure of 37 works, while the official site speaks of about thirty.

The selection criterion is simple and demanding. According to the centenary site, each piece had to match the quality of the best works that have passed through the gallery in its history — “equiparable a la de les millors peces que han passat per la galeria”. In effect, the show is a self-portrait of a dealer’s eye.

From Reus to Bailèn: five generations

The story behind the title is a family saga. According to the gallery, the business began in Reus in 1893 with Artur Ramon Vendrell, born in 1876. He moved to Sitges in 1925, and in October 1926 he advertised as an antiquarian in the avant-garde magazine L’Amic de les Arts — the date from which the centenary is counted. The firm moved to Barcelona in 1942, settling on Carrer de la Palla in the Gothic Quarter’s antiques district, opened a gallery space in 1973 and a Sala d’Art in 1986. It has exhibited at international fairs since 2009 and moved to its current premises on Carrer de Bailèn, in the Eixample, in 2017.

Today the firm is run by Artur Ramon Navarro and his sister Mònica Ramon. It deals in old masters as well as modern and contemporary art, shows at fairs such as Frieze Masters, and runs an Espai d’Art programme that pairs historical works with contemporary perspectives.

A book, films and visits around the show

The exhibition opens alongside a book with the same title, written by Artur Ramon i Navarro and Clara Beltrán Catalán, which traces the history of the gallery and the family. The friends’ association Amics dels Museus de Catalunya will present it on 18 November 2026 at 17:00 at the Col·legi de Farmacèutics (Carrer de Girona 64–66), with further presentations planned in Sitges, Reus, Barcelona and València. The same association has scheduled guided visits to the exhibition in November and early December.

The wider centenary programme also includes an audiovisual piece by Yuri Alemany, a photographic series and shop-window displays by Maite Caramés, and a lecture series at the gallery’s Espai Bailèn 21 in January and February 2027.

Why an antiques dealer’s anniversary matters

Barcelona’s art scene is usually discussed through its contemporary galleries and museums. But the old-master and antiques trade is the city’s deepest layer of collecting culture, and firms like Artur Ramon have quietly placed works in museums and private collections for generations. A centenary show is a chance to see what that expertise looks like when it is concentrated in one room.

For collectors, the attraction is obvious: works by names usually seen behind museum glass, offered for acquisition, with a hundred years of provenance research behind the dealer. Prices are not published; enquire with the gallery. For painters, the show is a rare chance to see — side by side and close up — how Zurbarán’s or Ribera’s handling of light and flesh echoes, centuries later, in Casas, Picasso and Barceló. And for anyone who loves Barcelona, it tells the story of the city’s collecting through one family’s eyes.

Visiting information

Artur Ramon Art, Carrer de Bailèn 19, 08010 Barcelona. 29 October 2026 – 5 February 2027. Open Monday–Friday, 10:00–14:00 and 16:00–19:00; the opening time on 29 October and Saturday hours have not been published, so check with the gallery. Phone: +34 93 302 59 70. Email: [email protected].

See the official centenary site, our exhibition listing, and more Barcelona and Madrid openings on Upcoming Art Exhibitions in Leading Galleries.