Ylla-Català Passola, Gemma

Biography

Gemma Ylla-Català Passola holds a degree in Art History (1986), a Master's Degree in Museology (1989) and a Master's Degree in Art (2003) from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She has been assistant curator of the Romanesque art collections at the National Art Museum of Catalonia since 2000, and has been especially dedicated to Romanesque painting and the history of medieval art collections. Since 2014 she has been part of the research group "Tresors, Marxants, Col·leccions. La dispersió de l'art europeu: col·leccions, exposicions i comerç de l'art. El diàleg artístic i cultural amb Amèrica, 1900-1989", at the University of Barcelona, led by Imma Socias. Since May 1995 she has been working at the National Art Museum of Catalonia, where she initially worked at the Center for Documentation and Educational Dissemination (1995-1998) and in the Publications Department (1998-2000).
Previously she worked in several museums, institutions and projects, in tasks of documentation and cataloguing of collections, such as the Episcopal Museum of Vic (1988-1991), the Victor Balaguer Museum Library (1996), the Architectural Heritage Service of the Generalitat of Catalonia (1991-1996) and the Inventory of the Assets of the Catholic Church in Catalonia (1990-1992). He also collaborated in the realization of the museographic project prior to the architectural remodeling of the Episcopal Museum of Vic (1989-1990), and in various programs of dissemination and cultural promotion of the European Community, such as the European Community Petra Programme-Salònica (1993) or the Horizon Program (1993-1994).

The first research she carried out was related to the study of the formation of the South Kensington Museum in London (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) and the repercussions of its model on the creation or organization of art museums in Catalonia (1991-1993). The study of the collections of the National Art Museum of Catalonia has led her to delve into some art historians and artists who, in different aspects, have been daring for the study or assessment of Catalan Romanesque art, such as Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Josep Pijoan, Raimon Casellas and Antoni Tàpies. In previous years she has also delved into the recent history of the National Museum's medieval artworks, from the study of the actions of the Board of Museums or the activity of antique dealers and collectors, for example the antiquarian Amadeu Sales and the medieval art collection of Lluís Plandiura in the 1920s.
Regarding museography, he collaborated in the coordination of the reorganization of the collections of the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) completely relocated to the public in 2004, and coordinated the next reform of the collections of Romanesque art (2011). Also, at the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC), individually or collectively, she has curated the exhibitions dedicated to "Domènech i Montaner i la descoberta de l'art romànic" (2006), "El esplendor del románico" (Fundación MAPFRE Madrid. 2011), "En Companyía d'Antoni Tàpies. Visita al romànic" (2013-2014) and "Col·lecció Antonio Gallardo Ballart- Obres d'art románic i gòtic" (2016), about which studies were published in the corresponding catalogs.