Ironic, cosmopolitan, groundbreaking—and always, even in some of his advertising work, projecting a critical gaze on the world around him. The images of Cèsar Malet have long been absent from advertising and the press, but now Arxiu Fotogràfic de Barcelona brings them back into focus with the exhibition “Cèsar Malet. Self-portrait. Irony, Aesthetics and Passion.” Visit it from 19 November to 24 May.

Malet died in 2015 at the age of 75, shortly after an exhibition organised by his friends, among them the photographer Pilar Aymerich, gathered his work at the Palau Robert. He himself did nothing to promote his images—works marked by an intelligence and artistic rigor that were highly uncommon—which is why an artist who renewed the photographic language of his time is not as well-known as he should be.

He was part of the so-called gauche divine, a movement made up of sophisticated, progressive-leaning Barcelona intellectuals in the late-Francoist years. With a different (and critical) view of the world, Malet was capable of photographing beautiful, elegant models in a shantytown in Montjuïc or El Carmel. He created works ahead of their time, experimenting with forms inspired by nature and the human body, such as the series RES, created with painter Josep Maria Berenguer. He also worked with Carlos Barral and, in 1970, produced a series of portraits of around twenty writers, including Jaime Gil de Biedma, Pere Gimferrer, Terenci and Ana María Moix, Juan Marsé, and Barral himself.

The exhibition now on view brings together more than a hundred photographs preserved in the Arxiu Fotogràfic de Barcelona, made available for researchers and shown to the curious gaze of the public.

Street photographs, portraits of artists, and snapshots taken in jazz clubs, nightlife scenes, and an exceptional ability to capture the vibrancy of daily life in Barcelona at the time—all of these characterize Malet’s images. If you want to see what Jamboree was like in the 1960s, come and take a look.

If you want to discover the photographs of Cèsar Malet, don’t miss the exhibition dedicated to him at Arxiu Fotogràfic de Barcelona—but before coming, consult the website for visitor information.