MNAC: the museum where a thousand years of Catalan art await you (and how to take advantage of it as an appointment with the artist)

Qué es MNAC — Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya y de dónde viene

The MNAC is housed in the Palau Nacional, built for the Barcelona International Exhibition of 1929. The most extraordinary thing about the museum is what it rescued in a monumental salvage operation between 1919 and 1923: the Romanesque mural paintings from the churches of the Catalan Pyrenees from the 11th and 12th centuries, which were being sold to foreign collectors by priests who needed money. Walter Cook, an American patron, helped finance the operation. Italian restorers developed the 'strappo' technique to remove frescoes without destroying them. The result is the most important collection of Romanesque art in the world — superior even to that of the Louvre. Room 7, where the Pantocrator of Sant Climent de Taüll is located, is probably the most spiritual museum space in Europe.

Why go — and what's the purpose of your appointment with the artist?

When the creative well is completely dry, what you need is not to produce art: you need to see art. Lots of art. Made by people who doubted, suffered and still painted. The MNAC is the fastest transfusion of inspiration that Barcelona has — because it combines a thousand years of art without a tourist filter, with a building that is already a work of art in itself, on a hill overlooking the sea.

How to take advantage of it (concrete practice)

Reserve a minimum of 90 minutes only for the Romanesque room (room 7). Sit in front of the Pantocrator of Sant Climent de Taüll and draw what you see in your notebook. It doesn't have to be good: it has to be yours. The MNAC rule for dating the artist is counterintuitive: don't try to see everything. If you go with the 'must see' list, you're not going to really see anything. Choose ONE room. Stay in it. Look until the painting begins to look back at you. After the Romanesque room, go up to the terrace of the Palau Nacional — it is three floors above Maria Cristina Avenue, with a view of all of Barcelona. Three hours here are worth more than two weeks reading books on creativity.

Why this place connects with Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way

The practice of the appointment with the artist that Julia Cameron prescribes in The Artist's Path has a principle: creativity needs to be fed before I can produce. Cameron calls it 'filling the well.' The metaphor is exact: if it doesn't rain, the well runs dry. If you don't expose your brain to non-work stimuli once a week, your ability to generate new ideas quietly declines, week by week.

MNAC — Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya es un sitio ideal para una cita con el artista porque cumple las tres condiciones que Cameron pide: It takes you out of your routine (a place other than your work and home), does not require production (you are going to receive, not create), and exposes you to curated stimuli (someone with judgment decided this was worth watching). Three conditions, an hour or two, once a week. It is probably the practice with the best mental ROI that you are going to add to your routine.

If you haven't taken the course yet, this is the place to start. Your Artist's Path is the free 12-week program that applies Julia Cameron's method to your life — including two hours a week blocked off on your calendar for appointments like this. More about the course at the end of the post.