The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires and later the Pinacoteca del Estado de Sao Paulo in Brazil host the exhibition: De Picasso a Barceló: la colección del Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, siglo XX, which, as its title indicates, includes the beginning and end of twentieth century Spanish art with a period marked by two multi-faceted artists. Chronologically organised, the exhibition invites its Argentine and Brazilian public to participate in the wealth of the last hundred years of art in Spain.
With a total of one hundred and seven exhibits, the collection begins with the pieces by Cubist Pablo Picasso, María Blanchard, Juan Gris, Julio González and Pablo Gargallo, a group that is active in Paris in the early twentieth century. At the same time, Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí are present as representatives of surrealism. They are all protagonists in the Españoles en París exhibition held in 1999 at the Fundación Marcelino Botín of Santander, and which also exhibits some works from the Museo Reina Sofía Collection.
Dalí and Miró are joined by Leandre Cristòfol, Óscar Dominguez and Ángel Ferrant in the section dedicated to surrealism. Parallel to the development of the avant-garde in Paris, in Spain we find participants from the Ultraism and Noucentisme movements, artists like Rafael Barradas, Manuel Hugué, José Gutiérrez Solana, Joaquín Torres García and Daniel Vázquez Díaz. At the same time, Surrealism is echoed in the School of Vallecas, represented in the exhibition by Juan Manuel Díaz Caneja, Maruja Mallo, Benjamín Palencia and Alberto Sánchez, who the Museo Reina Sofía dedicates a complete retrospective to, simultaneous to this exhibition.
Post-war Spain is present through two large groups in this exhibition. In one group we find the abstract generation which includes groups like Dau al set, with an Antoni Tàpies who is still influenced by surrealism and who later heads Informalism in Spain. They also include the group El Paso, whose members include Antonio Saura, Manuel Millares and Martín Chirino. Also present are the new Basque sculptors such as Eduardo Chillida and Jorge Oteiza. Finally, there are artists such as Lucio Muñoz, Manuel Hernández Mompó, Albert Ràfols-Casamada, Gerardo Rueda, Gustavo Torner and Fernando Zóbel, who in around 1966 concentrate on the newly created Museo de Arte Abstracto Español de Cuenca.
Conversely, there is a focus on the figuration that develops throughout the Sixties, with artists such as Eduardo Arroyo, Equipo Crónica, Luis Gordillo, Carmen Laffón, Antonio López García and Cristino de Vera, among others.
With the advent of democracy, Spanish art becomes universal. Under the heading Últimas Generaciones artists such as Alfonso Albacete, Carlos Alcolea, Miquel Barceló, Guillermo Pérez Villalta, José María Sicilia, Juan Uslé and Miguel Ángel Campano are selected, while a selection of sculptors, protagonists of new trends are exhibited, such as Juan Muñoz, Susana Solano, Eva Lootz and Cristina Iglesias, among others.
In this way, the selection of works from the collection of the Museo Reina Sofía presents a complete tour of the transformations in twentieth century Spanish art.
Exhibition´s details
Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brasil (July 31 - September 16, 2001)