Soccer and bullfighting, among others. Ramón Masats. Visit Spain is the free exhibition that brings together the clichés of a country, ours, at a very specific time – the decade of the 50s and 60s of the last century – through the particular gaze of this renovator of photography. Masats passed away almost a year ago, leaving a legacy marked by a special intuition when it comes to portraying life, always with a touch of irony and an absolute respect for reality.
Without that it is difficult to explain, for example, how a photograph like the one on the cover of this article is captured. It was the journalist and writer Ignacio Pato to whom I read in a publication of X a note about it -I have been unable to find it in that social network, just as it is almost impossible to meet anyone- that reminded me of the decisive instant that Cartier-Bresson spoke of: we know that it is a goal because of the shadow.
The exhibition, with which the Torreón de Lozoya in Segovia (Plaza de San Martín, No. 5) inaugurated its 2025 program on February 7, serves as a tribute to this great photographer from Caldes de Montbui (Barcelona), who, camera in hand, traveled our geography in search of the traditional and folkloric rites -the “clichés”- of the official culture of the time: the one blessed and promoted by the Franco dictatorship.
Visit Spain and the end of the autarchy
It was in 1953, as a result of his work Reportaje sobre Las Ramblas, that Masats became fascinated by this genre. Barely two years later, in 1955, he began the aforementioned journey in search of topics, which would last a decade and would be marked by the historical moment in which it took place.
It was the end of Franco’s autarchy and the country was opening up to the outside world. The Ministry of Information and Tourism (1951) and the National Tourism Plan (1953) were born: Visit Spain was the first propaganda slogan.
Dates and schedule of the Ramón Masats exhibition
The exhibition can be visited until April 30, 2025 at the following schedule:
- Tuesday to Friday: from 10h to 14h and from 16h to 19h.
- Saturdays: from 10h to 14h and from 16h to 20h.
- Sundays: from 10h to 14h.
- Monday: closed.