The collection of Francesc Català-Roca (Valls, 1922-Barcelona, 1998), one of the most relevant photographers of the 20th century, remains in Catalonia. The Minister of Culture Natàlia Garriga announced this Monday the purchase by the Generalitat of the acquisition of all of her work (167,701 negatives in black and white and color, 3,109 color slides, some 14,000 contact sheets and some 2,000 copies vintage) for two million euros. The images will be deposited in the National Archive of Catalonia and the MNAC, the latter museum where in the coming years a large anthology will be dedicated to it.
The acquisition occurs in the final stages of Any Català-Roca, which has been commemorating the centenary of its birth, and aims to preserve the integrity of the fund and its dissemination, as well as its departure outside of Catalonia, once The temporary deposit that his children made in 2008 to the Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya (COAC) expired. For Garriga, it is a "country acquisition", which "guarantees the conservation, research and dissemination of the Català-Roca collection, the most important photographer of the 20th century in Catalonia and in the Spanish State."
The photographer's son, Andreu Català Pedersen, is satisfied to have finally found the best possible destination for an immense legacy that is impossible to manage outside of large institutions - despite the work carried out during these years by the COAC, 85% remain pending digitization of the images -, has pointed out that the Archive brings together "the work of many years of dedication, milestones, research, innovations and relevant information." A set that, he considers, "is a wonderful journey through the 20th century from the hand and eyes of a unique photographer who mastered very well the art of translating the visible world into two-dimensional images." And he recalled that, in 1973, his wise look "was reinvented in color, because he believed that color was very important, since nature is in color, because the painting of his friend Joan Miró is in color, because if he had invented color photography, no one would have missed black and white, as he said"
The purchase of the entire Català-Roca archive, which will make the images accessible to everyone, is one of the most relevant within the acquisition policy of the National Art Collection of Catalonia, thanks to which have incorporated other important funds such as that of Josep Brangulí in 1992 or that of Pilar Aymerich in 2011. Currently it has 50,000 works, some of which have become part of donations such as that of Joan Colom (in this case in exchange for a lifetime pension to his heirs), Josep Maria Casals i Ariet or Pere Formiguera, in addition to deposits from the Photographic Association of Catalonia or part of the Oriol Maspons fund, acquired through the MNAC by the patron Elsa Peretti.
