The exhibition "Modernism. Art, workshops, industries" provides a complete overview of this movement focused on the so-called decorative and applied arts and crafts that played a larger role (the stained glass, wrought iron, ceramics, artistic carpentry ... ).

The international seminar "Art Nouveau-Modernisme: Paris-Barcelona" is organised by the SEC (Séminaire d´Études Catalanes) of the CRIMIC research group (Centre de Recherches interdisciplinaire sur les Mondes Ibériques Contemporains) at the Paris Sorbonne University and by the GRACMON (Research Group for the History of Art and Contemporary Design) of the University of Barcelona.
The activity examines contrasting perspectives on the Art Nouveau style from its triumph in 1900 through its decline, icons in both cities and certain Art Nouveau manifestations, such as wallpaper, plant ornamentation and fashion. Diverse specialists will be contributing, fomenting relationships between two of the most outstanding Art Nouveau centres in Europe.
The seminar includes the participation of Núria Aragonés, Fàtima López and Teresa-M.
Sala (GRACMON, University of Barcelona), Jérémie Cerman (Centre André Chastel, Paris- Sorbonne University), Mireia Freixa (director of GRACMON) and Eliseu Trenc (University of Reims).
"Art Nouveau-Modernisme: Paris- Barcelona" is scheduled in two series. The
first took place on 16 November 2015 while the second will be held on 8 February 2016 at the Centre d´Études Catalanes. This activity is the first which this institution, founded in 1977 with a triple vocation for university, cultural and scientific studies, has held on Art Nouveau. The Centre d´Études Catalanes hosts varied activities ? exhibitions, conferences, seminars and scientific discussions - on subjects concerned with Catalan history and culture taking place in the French capital.

This seminar is directed by Mònica Güell (director of the Centre d´Études Catalanes,
Paris -Sorbonne University) and Fàtima López (researcher at GRACMON).

Within the new concept of modern art that was formulated at the end of the 19th century, the difference and hierarchy between the various artistic genres began to become less distinct. Graphic art consequently became the subject of enormous interest and experimentation on the part of painters such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard and Mucha, among others, a fact that also benefitted specialist illustrators who began to be seen as artists. In addition, technical innovations in printmaking which allowed for increasingly rapid methods of reproduction of higher quality and in larger print runs, combined with the increasing presence of advertising as part of contemporary culture, definitively broke down the previous boundaries which had confined graphic illustration to books and magazines and this medium now took possession of the street in the form of posters.