The Museu Carmen Thyssen Andorra yesterday hosted a literary conference with the writer Tània Juste.
During the talk, Juste revealed her inspiration for the 19th century novel Amor al art, which is related to the context of the current exhibition Made in Paris.
In the format of a conversation, the audience learned in depth about the lives of the characters who appear in her story and the role of the woman artist in the Montparnasse district of the 1920s.
The writer also signed a copy of the work, which won the Prudenci Bertrana Prize in 2021.
Love of Art. Prudenci Bertrana Prize 2021
In the Barcelona of the 1970s, Olivia is about to graduate from the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts with a degree in History of Art. Having come from the village five years earlier, she lives in the Gothic Quarter with her grandfather, an antiques dealer in Carrer de la Palla, whom she helps in her spare time, while at the same time she goes out with a photojournalist who covers the most important events of Franco’s regime.
During the emptying of a flat belonging to an important Austrian art collector, Olivia discovers the self-portrait of Valèria Sans, an unknown avant-garde painter who lived in Montparnasse in the 1920s and was associated with the great artists of the time. Her premature death and the fact that she was a woman buried her in oblivion. This discovery will represent an edifying mirror and a great motivation for Olivia’s life trajectory, which will be marked forever and ever.
Tània Juste. AUTHOR
She is a writer and has a degree in History, specialising in Art History, from the University of Barcelona. In 2009 she published her first novel, A flor de piel (with a new edition from Columna in 2020), set in Barcelona in the 1920s, in the midst of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship. In 2010 he participated in the anthology Voces de la nueva narrativa catalana, coordinated by Lolita Bosch (Empúrias/Anagrama). In 2012 he published Los años robados (Columna), a tribute to the Republican aviators during the Civil War. El hospital de los pobres (Columna) is his third work, published in 2014, a choral novel set in the early years of the 20th century during the construction of the Hospital de la Santa Cruz y Santo Pablo. In 2015 he received the Nèstor Luján Historical Novel Prize with Tiempo de familia, about a family lineage dedicated to vine cultivation and winemaking, and in 2018 he published Pasaje en el nuevo mundo, a transatlantic crossing that in 1918 brought his protagonist, a woman from Barcelona, to a new life in Patagonia. A good part of her work has been translated into Spanish, as well as some titles that have been translated into German. She combines writing with translation work into Catalan and Spanish, and also collaborates in collective books and magazines and participates in literary activities, talks, round tables, reading clubs, literary competitions and the organisation of literary routes.
Txell Díaz. INTERVIEWER
Graduated in 2018 with a degree in Humanities specialising in art from Pompeu Fabra University. She has been combining her academic training with theatre, both at an academic level, studying a postgraduate degree in Performing Arts and Social Action and a master’s degree in Theatre Studies; and at a practical level, taking part in several companies and shows.
She is currently part of the production team of the Museu Carmen Thyssen Andorra.
