el arte en espaÑa-en-2009

8/14/2019 EL ARTE EN ESPAA-EN-2009

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EUROPEAN COMMUNITY

European RegionalDevelopment Fund

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MINISTERIODE INDUSTRIA, TURISMOY COMERCIO

TURESPAA


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Take Spains geographic diversity andvaried landscape, take its history of invasions, migrations, expansion,conquest, and what do you get? Art, witha capital A. Spanish Art was born of theebb and flow of civilizations that hasdetermined Spains history since antiquity. New cultures with new ideas have alwaysmet, clashed, intermingled and beentransformed in the great melting pot that isthe Iberian peninsula. The result is amosaic of styles, nuances, currents,colours and trends stretching over thecenturies and comprising one of theworlds most enviable artistic heritages.Spanish artistic creativity has always beendetermined by the tension between whatcame from abroad and what alreadyexisted in Spain.Along with examples of each wave thathas swept over the Peninsula and given itits Celtic fortresses, Romanesquemonasteries, Gothic cathedrals andRenaissance palaces, one finds artisticexpressions that originated in Spain andare quintessentially Spanish: the art of the prehistoric Iberians, of the Visigoths, of

the Moors, of the Mudejars... For reasonsof history and temperament, they couldnot have emerged anywhere but Spain.An inherent vitality explains why SpanishArt is as diverse as it is, and why it has played a leading role in the history of world art as a whole. Spain has given theworld some of its greatest universalmasters, both past and present: creativegiants such as Velzquez, Zurbarn and

Goya have been followed, in moremodern times, by Gaud, Picasso,Mir, Dal, and even more recently by world-ranked names includingTapis, Barcel and many others.To explore this wealth of creativity,to allow ones gaze to wander acrossthe sweeping mosaic that is Spain, itslandscapes, and its art, is to embark on a fantastic visual adventure.

Tall (Lleida). Church of Sant Climent

Madrid. Prado Museum. Velzquez: Las Meninas

Barcelona. Mars Museum. Roman statue

Barcelona. Mars Museum. Romanesque carving

Madrid. Centro de Arte Reina Sofa National Museum. Pablo R. Picasso: Guernica (1937)

Valencia. Marqus de Dos Aguas Palace

A r t i n

S p a i n

A M O S A I C O F

A R T


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HE first artists of Iberia gave us

mysterious and beautiful cave paintings.

Later, peoples from distant lands arrived

over the centuries to add their own contributions to the

artistic heritage of Spain. Finally, the Roman Empire

left its indelible stamp on Spanish culture and art.

T

Paintings in caves, such as Altamira, or in rock shelters, such as Albarracn , signal thebirth of art on the Iberian Peninsula. They would be followed much la ter by Neolithic pottery,settlements, stone dolmensand funeral chambers.

In the beginning, there was art

In a time long forgotten a man created the birth certificate of Spanish art onthe ceiling of a cave in northern Spain. The genius responsible for the cave paintings of Altamira may have worn rough clothes and communicatedwith grunts, but the only thing that separates him from Pablo Picasso istime 15,000 years of it. The paintings were discovered by accident whena Spanish aristocrat and his young daughter were exploring the cave in1875. Cows!, the girl exclaimed when she saw the beautifully tracedrepresentations of bison. So perfect and so well preserved were the paintings that at first experts were reluctant to accept them as authentic.Many similar examples were subsequently discovered in northern Spain.Prehistoric art from a later date, in caves and rock shelters in eastern andsouthern Spain, are much different in character: schematic, almost abstractrenditions of hunting scenes, accompanied by undecipherable symbols.As time progressed, prehistoric man left further samples of his skill, in prehistoric ceramic vases that can be seen in museums all over Spain. Andfrom the Neolithic period, there are astounding megalithic constructions,such as the dolmens of La Menga and El Romeral in Antequera (Mlaga),funeral chambers built, no one knows how, with massive stone slabsweighing many tons. Similar structures exist elsewhere in Andalusia, and inCatalonia, Aragon, Galicia, Extremadura and lava.

Albarracn (Teruel). Rock shelter in Las OlivanasSantillana del Mar (Cantabria). Altamira caves

Coaa prehistoric settlement (Asturias)

CROSSROADS OF ANCIENT CULTURES

Antequera (Mlaga). Menga dolmen


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was influenced by peoples whoarrived by sea, and it achieved suchsophistication that it still amazes theexperts. For who can explain how asupposedly backward people couldcreate such masterpieces as the Damade Elche or the Dama de Baza, bustsrepresenting priestesses or goddesses,along with sculptures of fantasticanimals, ingenious figurines andcharms that can be seen in the National Archeological Museum inMadrid and in local museums such as

the Alicante Museum, Elda Museum,Alcoy Museum or the Museum of Prehistory in Valencia?The Treasure of Carambolo and other vestiges displayed in theArcheological Museum of Seville areattributed to a mysteriouscivilization, the fabled kingdom of Tharsis or Tartessos, mentioned inthe Bible and believed to haveflourished in the area 3,500 years ago.

The dawn of civilization

Megalithic constructions were to become more complexwith the arrival of the Bronze Age. Menorca is so wellendowed with examples of talayots (defensive towers),taulas (a kind of altar) and navetas or funeralchambers such as Es Tudons that the entire island is anopen air museum of prehistoric architecture.By the Iron Age, what we can consider to be Iberian Arthad acquired a well-defined identity, though it varied incharacter from one region to another. In the north theinfluence of the first great European civilization, theCelts, is seen in fortresses and settlements of Galicia,amongst whose ruins the exquisitely fashioned jewels ondisplay in the Museum of Pontevedra were discovered.In the central regions of Spain, early artists created

sculptures of totemic animals, including the Bulls of Guisando (vila). The art of the Mediterranean coastline During the so-call ed Iron Age the art of Iberia began to take on awell-defined identity: in the north,Celtic culture left stone reliefs and stylized jewelry, while in the centre of Iberia t here is an abundance of totemic animals, and to the south figures of deiti es and pr iestessesshow the influence of peoples whoarrived by sea.

They came from the sea

Since antiquity, Spain has attracted traders and invaders, who settled here andenriched Iberias growing artistic heritage. Phoenician merchants, Greekscolonists, Carthaginians all left traces.The Phoenicians, more interested in commerce and navigation, were notessentially creators of art, but they were vital in spreading it among the landsthey visited, which included the entire Mediterranean coastline. The mosttypical expression of their art are sculpted sarcophagi such as thosediscovered in one of their earliest colonies, Gadir (present-day Cdiz). Other colonies they established on Iberias coast were Ibusim (Ibiza), Sexi(Almucar), and Abdera (Adra).Adventurous Greeks followed in the wake of the Phoenicians, settling alongthe Mediterranean coast, especially in the north. They established colonies inRohdes (Roses) and, most notably, Emporion (Empuries), in Girona, wheretwo Greek settlements share a site with a later Roman colony.Little is left of the passing of the Carthaginians, heirs of the Phoenicians whofounded Cartago Nova (New Carthage) at Cartagena on the eastern coast. InSpain, as in the main city of Carthage in northern Africa, their bitter enemiesthe Romans were especially thorough in wiping out any trace of theCarthaginians, although a few remnants survive, including several necropolisand reliefs such as that of Osuna.

El Tiemblo (vila). Bulls of Guisando

Barros (Cantabria). Celtic stele

Mahn (Menorca). Es Tudons funeral chamber

Seville. Archeological Museum. The Treasure of Carambolo

Madrid. Archeological Museum. The Dama de Elche

Pontevedra Museum. Gold collar


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Romes victory over Carthage was amajor turning point. In Spanish art, asin its history, there is a before and anafter the Romans arrival.In a relatively short period, the landRome called Hispania was to betransformed into one of the key pieces in the Empire, birthplace of many prominent Romans, includingthe emperors Hadrian, Trajan andTheodisius, or great thinkers andwriters such as Seneca, Martial andLucan.The Romans ruled Iberia for morethan six centuries, and their influence

on everything from law and languageto art and agriculture is impressive.They were above all builders with aflair for daring feats of engineering.They endowed Spain with pavedroads (some of the ancient routes arestill in use). They built bridges acrossrivers, in Alcntara, Ourense, Crdoba,Mrida, Salamanca... Theytransported water for miles with their aqueducts, ranging from theawe-inspiring constructions inSegovia and Mrida to more modestones in remote areas of Spain. They built ports. They dug mines and

quarries such as Las Medulas (Bierzo-Len) and El Medol (Tarragona).And once in a while they allowedthemselves the indulgence of buildinga triumphal arch, including those atBar (Tarragona), Medinaceli (Soria),and Cparra (Cceres).The cities they founded thrived longafter the Romans left, so much of what they built lies buried under later constructions. Even so, in colonieslike Barcino, Tarraco or EmeritaAugusta todays Barcelona,Tarragona and Mrida fineexamples of Roman building share

space with later architecture.Strangely, it is in the ruins of isolatedfundi or country estates (examplesexist in Burgos, Palencia and Toledo)and in those cities that wereabandoned where one can best ponder on the rise and fall of theRoman empire; ghost towns such asEmpuries in Girona,Clunia (Soria), Segbriga (Cuenca),Italica (Seville) and Acinipo(Mlaga), where the cry of a raven isall that is heard in amphitheatres thatonce echoed to a thousand voices.

The Roman legacy shows inevery aspect of life in Iberia, from great b ridges and aqueducts to small details likethe tiles that decorated the floors of Roman homes, or thedesign of a simple doll.

The Empire builders

Segovia. Roman aqueduct

Tarragona. Bar Arch

Itlica (Seville). Roman mosaic

Mrida (Badajoz). Museum of Roman Art Mrida (Badajoz). Museum of Roman Art Mrida (Badajoz). Milagros Roman Aqueduct

Despite the ravages of time, Spain is blessedwith many examples of well-preserved

Roman buildings. There are towers, wallsand fortifications, some as complete as thewalled city of Lugo and the ArcheologicalPromenade of Tarragona. There are Roman baths and waterworks. There are temples(Crdoba, Vic). There are tombs,mausoleums (the Tower of the Scipios,Tarragona) and entire necropolis (the one inCarmona is exceptional). Above all, there arethe emblematic theatres, amphitheatres andcircuses, such as those in Mrida, Sagunto,Clunia, Italica and Tarragona, to mention afew of the most impressive ones.Monumental buildings aside, Roman art isespecially rich in decorative elements and

items of everyday use: sculptures, reliefs,mosaics, vases, coins, weapons, utensils,

jewels, furniture, and other objects that filledtheir cities and homes. Roman statuary in particular achieved a high degree of perfection in Hispania. Museums such as thestriking Moneo-designed Museum of RomanArt in Mrida or that of Tarragona (housedin the praetorian tower within the citysRoman ruins) are vital for understandingSpains Latin legacy. Other outstandingcollections are on display in the museums of Barcelona, Zaragoza, Seville, Madrid, andToledo.

The legacy of Rome


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The early Christians adopted pagan images and symbols,endowing them with a newmeaning, such as the Good Shepherd which shares spacewith Biblical scenes, including Daniel in the lion s den, on the cija Sarcophagus.

The Christianrevolution

In the last years of Empire, when the peninsula was enjoying a complacent period of peace and civility, a newform of thinking was to shake theestablished order. Rome hadabsorbed many different religions inthe past, but in Christianity it faced averitable social revolution.Christianity took root quickly inHispania, and the new movement

was to affect artistic output. Basilicasand baptisteries such as those in SonBou (Menorca), Son Pereto(Manacor) or Santa Mara de Tarrasaor the curious cupola of Centcelles(Tarragona) are examples of earlyChristian art. In particular, in their sarcophagi one sees the perfectmarriage of Christian and classic artforms. There are some magnificentexamples in museums, but one alsofinds them in the most unexpected places: converted into an altar incija, embedded in a wall in SanFeli (Girona)... And the horseshoearches seen in some early Christianconstructions are a prelude to whatthe following centuries were to bring.

LIGHT IN THE DARK AGES

HE collapse of the Roman Empire

brought about the so-called Dark

Ages, yet the flame of creativity continued to

burn on the Iberian peninsula. Invading

Visigoths merged with Hispano-Romans, giving

shape to a culture that would prepare the way

for the artistic movements of the Middle Ages,

when Romanesque and Gothic would inspire

some of the great monuments of Spain.

T

cija (Seville). Church of Santa Cruz. Details of early Christian sarcophagus

San Juan de las Abadesas (Girona).Most Holy Mystery

Santo Domingo de Silos (Burgos). Monastery

Burgo de Osma (Soria). Cathedral.Tomb of San Pedro of Osma


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The unknown art of the Visigoths

The arrival of northern European tribes sounded the death knellfor the already crumbling western Roman empire. Awed bysuperior Roman culture, these so-called barbarians adoptedclassical art forms, but nevertheless added their own touches.The interaction between the Hispano-Romans of the Iberian peninsula and the newly arrived Visigoths gave birth to a new,indigenous culture.Sandwiched as they are between two great civilizations theRomans and the Moors of Al-Andalus the Visigoths and their

art are generally ignored, relegated to footnotes in art history books. But a visit to the Museum of Visigothic Culture in whatwas once their capital, Toledo, dispels the notion that Visigothicculture had nothing to offer.

Most remnants date from the 7th century. Outside Toledo, only afew isolated buildings or simple reliefs remain of the Visigoths.There are churches, either with a basilica plan, as in San Juan deBaos (Palencia), or cruciform plan, as in Santa Comba deBande (Ourense) and San Pedro de la Nave (Zamora). Thecapitals and reliefs in this last church, as those of Quintanilla delas Vias (Burgos), show a stylized spirituality that hints at thesymbolism which would follow during the Middle Ages.

The birth of Romanesque art

Arab and Berber armies arrived from North Africa in 711, defeating theVisigothic King Roderick, and,within a few years, had occupied theentire Iberian peninsula save for afew isolated pockets of resistance inthe mountains of northern Spain.That part of Spain never under

Muslim rule was the birthplace of a peculiar pre-Romanesque styleknown as Asturian art, or Ramirenseart (after King Ramiro, who ruledthe Kingdom of Asturias in the 9thcentury). A score of churchesscattered in the hills of Asturiasinclude such charming examples asSanta Mara del Naranco or SanMiguel de Lillo.This art coincided in time with theCarolingian renaissance in theFrankish empire, the harbinger of Romanesque art. Some churches inCatalonia, in the Frankish-controlled

Spanish March which straddled thePyrenees, also are a prelude to thenew spiritualism that was takinghold in Europe.The sweeping influence of theCluniac reform and the comings andgoings of pilgrims spreadRomanesque art across Europe. Such

was the force of this artisticmovement that it was fairly uniformthroughout the continent, yet on the peninsula, where Romanesquethrived in the 11th and 12thcenturies, it showed Visigothic and pre-Romanesque influences andeven borrowed from the culture of the Moors of southern Spain.

Visigothic culture and, later, Asturianor Ramirense art are expressions of local creativity that were a prelude tothe Romanesque style about to sweep Europe.

Oviedo (Asturias). Church of Santa Mara del Naranco

Oviedo (Asturias).Church of San Miguel de Lillo

Pola de Lena (Asturias). Church of Santa Cristina de LenaCampillo (Zamora). Church of San Pedro de la Nave

Campillo (Zamora). Church of San Pedro de la Nave


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The age of monasteries

During the 12th century, sculpture had a decorative and didactic function, mainly in theform of facades and capitals. In an age when literacy was the exception, the figures onthe facade of the Ripoll monastery constituted an illustrated Bible for the unlettered populace. The capitals of Sant Pere de Galligans, San Juan de las Abadesas, San Cugatdel Valles or the cloisters of the Girona and Tarragona cathedrals also fulfilled aneducational purpose. In Navarre and Aragon there are exceptional examples in thechurches of San Pedro el Viejo and San Juan de la Pea (Huesca), Sangesa and SanMiguel de Estella, and, in central Spain, the cloister of Silos monastery and themarvellous Jacobean facade of Carrin de los Condes (Palencia).Spain also contributed some of the finest known examples of Romanesque painting,especially in frescoes, altar frontals and miniatures illustrating illuminated codices.Barcelonas Museum of Catalonia has one of the worlds finest collections of Romanesqueart, though there are many treasures as well in the museums of Vic and Jaca. To theseone must add the frescoes of the Pantheon of San Isidoro in Leon or the archaic figures,with Mozarab touches, of Maderuelo and San Baudelio de Berlanga (Prado Museum).Towards the end of the 12th century, France was shaken by another upheaval: theCistercian reform, which sought a return to greater austerity and severity. Monasteriesfrom this period were veritable cities devoted entirely to prayer and work: Poblet, SantesCreus, Fitero, Veruela, Iranzu, Piedra, Las Huelgas, Santa Mara de Huerta, Oya, Osera...At the same time, architects were turning their hand to secular constructions, especiallyin Catalonia, for instance the Old Quarter of Besal or the frontier castles erected on landreclaimed from the Moors.The Christians southward advance was unstoppable, reaching as far as Crdoba and Seville,conquered by King Ferdinand III in 1236 and 1248. Here we can see examples of churchesof what could be termed Fernandino design, a transitional style in which one canappreciate how Romanesque was already giving way to another great medievalmovement: Gothic art.

The Pantocrator - Christ represented as Ruler of theUniverse - surrounded by thesymbols of the four Evangelists,carved in stone tympanums or inthe frescoes of apses, sums up theschematic character of Romanesque Art.

The way of Saint James

The pilgrim route to the shrine of Saint James in Santiago de Compostela,walked by millions during the Middle Ages, was crucial in the spread of Romanesque art across Christian Spain. Many great constructions sprung upalong the Jacobean Way: the cathedral in Jaca, San Martn de Frmista(Palencia), San Isidoro de Len or, the grandest example of a Romanesquecathedral in all of Spain, the shrine of Saint James in Santiago itself. MaestroMateos Portico of Glory is a medieval symphony in stone, a masterpiece thathas its predecessors in sculptural works such as the porticos of San Vicente inAvila, and San Pedro el Viejo and Santa Cruz de Sers in Huesca. Also worthmentioning as examples of 11th century Romanesque carving are the capitals

in the cloisters of Silos monastery or the reliefs on coffers and ivory chests inSan Milln de la Cogolla (La Rioja).By the 12th century Romanesque art was so widespread that there werealready individual schools developing with local peculiarities. Thus, one canspeak of a Segovian Romanesque, which produced churches with porticossuch as San Milln, San Martn, or San Esteban, this last with the mostsplendid example of a Romanesque tower. In the valley of the Duero river,Byzantine influences can be detected in the ornamented cupolas of Zamora,Toro and the old cathedral in Salamanca. Oriental undertones are also seen inthe Soria style, in the churches of San Juan de Duero and San Juan deRabanera. Galicia, too, had its own variation on the Romanesque theme, seenin the Tuy cathedral and the churches of Betanzos or Noya.Catalonia is especially rich in Romanesque art, in this case not only showingJacobean but Carolingian and Lombard influences as well, evidenced by theRomanesque churches of the Pyrenees, the Girona cathedral, or Sant Pere deGalligans.

Tall (Lleida). Church of Sant Climent. Apse frescoes

Len. Collegiate of San Isidoro

Santes Creus (Tarragona). Monastery

Carrin de los Condes (Palencia).Church of Saint James. Pantocrator


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The cathedral builders

Gothic was no mere artistic fashion. It wasa new way of perceiving life that wouldmake its mark on the entire continent.The dark ages were a thing of the past.A new kind of spirituality, one that waslighter and brighter, took hold of thecities, which by now had replaced themonasteries as the main centres of culturalactivity. These medieval cities wereusually arranged around their most

important building, the cathedral, but lifewas no longer entirely dominated byreligion. This was the age of minstrels,

chivalry, gallant love, refined palaces, anage when once again sculpture and painting became art forms in their own right.So sudden was the flourishing of Gothicart at the beginning of the 13th centurythat some buildings were started withRomanesque pilasters and finished off with Gothic domes. This architecturalchanging of the guard can be seen inmany Cistercian monasteries and churches built at the time. Romanesque austerityinfluenced the design of the first Gothiccathedrals, in Avila, Tarragona, Lleida,Cuenca, Sigenza (these last two areunusual cases in Spain of the Norman style).

Gothic Art which arrived from Europe lightened the look of cathedral walls, covered portals, palaces and clois ters with delicatecarving, and endowed statues with a

human expressiveness that announced a new sensitivity.

The spirit of the flame

As the 14th century gave way to the 15th,Gothic art became ever more light and airy.Its fondness for tapering lines is somewhatreminiscent of a candle flame; for thisreason it is sometimes known in Spanish asGotico flamgero, though, for itstendency towards flowery ornamentation, itis generally termed Flamboyant Gothic.Two separate schools developed thisaesthetic in central Spain. One was centred

in Toledo, home of Juan Guas whodesigned San Juan de los Reyes (Toledo)and the Infantado Palace (Guadalajara) and Enrique Egas, who built three royalhospices in Santiago, Granada and SantaCruz in Toledo. The other school wascentred in Burgos, the workplace of Juande Colonia, who gave the Burgos cathedralits spires, and Simon de Colonia, architectof San Gregorio in Valladolid.The exuberant temperament of the ageinspired one of Christianitys mostambitious projects, the Cathedral of Seville,whose instigators sought a temple so grand

as to go down into history as madmen.The same flamboyant spirit prompted thecathedrals of Segovia and the newcathedral of Salamanca, this last the work of Gil de Hontan.Sculpture was no longer considered tohave a secondary role, and sculptorsenjoyed an improved status as true artists,rather than mere craftsmen. In theKingdom of Aragon, the work of Guillem

Sagrera and Pere Joan stands out. Navarrese sculpture showed a Burgundianinfluence (appreciated in carved tombs inPamplona and Tudela). Flemish influence,on the other hand, was strong in Castileand its dependent states, especially inSeville, Burgos Gil de Siloe was amajor exponent and Toledo.And, while frescoes continued to adornwalls, the most characteristic medium for painting in this period were the greataltarpieces. Of the diverse styles, Hispano-Flemish of the second half of the 15thcentury is especially noteworthy.

Palma de Mallorca. Cathedral

Toledo. Convent of San Juan de los Reyes

Segovia. Convent of Santa Cruz. Portal

The 13th century saw the building of three great Castillian cathedrals. Burgosand Leon both have a decidedly French

flavour, particularly in their sculpturalelements. Toledo is indisputably the mostSpanish of the three, with indications of the Moorish influence which was sostrong in the city.During the 14th century, building activityshifted to the eastern seaboard of the peninsula. The cathedrals of Barcelona,Girona, Palma de Mallorca, Valencia,Manresa and Tortosa have amuch lighter, more spacious feel inside.

Len. Cathedral

El Doncel (Pages comt.). Sigenza


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THE ART OF AL-ANDAHEN the armies of Islam arrived

on the Spanish peninsula, they

would transform the land they

came to call Al-Andalus.

While northern Europe was

floundering in feudalism,

they created a civilization

that not only outshone its neighbours but formed a

bridge between the Western and Oriental worlds.

W

Granada. Alhambra. El Partal gardens Monastery of El Escorial (Madrid). Library. Book of Games, by King Alfonso X the Wise

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FOTO NUM.45Giralda de

In the name of Allah

Berber and Arab armies landed inGibraltar in 711 for what initiallyhad been meant as a large-scaleraiding party. They had no intentionof staying but, as it turned out, theyoccupied the peninsula, or part of it,for nearly eight centuries. Their influence on Spanish art and culturewas enormous. The civilization of Al-Andalus was the most brilliant of its time, and constituted the meeting point of Western and Orientalculture. Not only did the Moors, as theMuslims of Spain are properlycalled, develop their own style, theyinfluenced that of the Christians withwhom they shared be it in peaceor war the peninsula. Separatestyles were developed by theMozarabs (Christians who lived

under Muslim rule) and later theMudejars (Moors who remained interritory conquered by Christians).Spains Jewish community, too,adopted elements of Islamic art asthe basis of a distinct Sephardicstyle.

Art of the Crdoba period, when Moorish c ivilization reached its zenith, se rved as a model for la ter generations who created suchbeautiful works as the Giralda of Seville o r the Alja fera of Zaragoza.

Rise and fall of Al-Andalus

The Moors greatest moment of cultural splendour is the so-calledCrdoba period. Al-Andalus, whichat one time covered most of the peninsula, was at first dependent onthe ruling Umayyad dynasty inDamascus. When the Umayyadswere overthrown by a rival clan, theUmayyad prince Abd Al-Rahman Ifled to Spain to establish anindependent emirate, with its capital inCrdoba. In 929 his descendant, Abdal-Rahman III, founded the Crdobacaliphate, proclaiming himself Caliph or Prince among believers.The most representative work of the period is the Crdoba mosque, builton the site of an old Visigothic basilica. Roman and Visigothiccolumns and capitals were used inthe construction, which was addedon to by successive caliphs. Another monumental project was the fabulous palatial city of Madinat al-Zahra

outside Crdoba. The opulence of itshalls astounded visitors, includingByzantine ambassadors accustomedto extravagance. But the palacessplendour was short lived: it wasrazed to the ground by rebelliousBerber mercenaries a mere half-century after it was built.The collapse of the Crdobacaliphate brought about thesplintering of Muslim Spain into a jigsaw puzzle of small kingdoms, theTaifas. Mlagas Alcazaba and themagnificent Aljafera in Zaragozadate from this period.Increasing pressure from the ever more powerful Christians in the northled several of the Taifa kings toappeal for help from the Almoravids,the ruling clan in northern Africa.Accepting the invitation, theAlmoravids invaded the peninsula in1086 and stayed. They in turnwere replaced by another northAfrican tribe, the Almohads, in 1146.

Both peoples were religiousfundamentalists with no time for thefrills and frivolity of the Crdobacaliphate or the Taifa kings. Their artwas severe. Brick facades onlyoccasionally broken by a diamond pattern, the sebka, are about all theAlmohads allowed themselves in theway of decorative flourishes. Nevertheless, they built notableworks such as the Giralda in Seville a minaret, later incorporated intothe Christian cathedral or theTower of Gold on the banks of theGuadalquivir river.

Sevilla. Torre del Oro

Zaragoza. The Aljafera

Madinat al-Zahra (Crdoba) Mlaga. The Alcazaba

Crdoba. Mosque

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Strangers in Paradise

In general, the Moorish rulers of Spain tolerated Jews and Christians,as people of the Book. Christiansliving under Moorish rule, known asMozarabs almost Arabs werea clannish folk with customs and ritesunlike those of Christian Spain. Theydeveloped their own artistic style,which reached its peak in the 10thcentury, manifesting itself both asworks by communities who remainedin Muslim territory, and by Mozarabswho emigrated to Christian lands butmaintained their old customs. Thefirst group left us the churches of Bobastro (Mlaga) and Melque(Toledo). The second group built thechurches of San Miguel de laEscalada and Santiago de Pealba inLeon, San Cebrin de Mazote and San

Baudelio de Berlanga in Castile, andSanta Mara de Lebea in Cantabria.

Christians under Moorish rule,

called Mozarabs, used many Arabic elements in their churches.

The last of the Moors

By the middle of the 14th century,with Seville, Crdoba and most of western Andalusia in Christian hands,the Moors presence in Spain wasreduced to the small kingdom of Granada, encompassing the present-day provinces of Granada, Mlagaand Almera. There they wouldremain, a vassal kingdom, until their defeat by King Ferninand and QueenIsabel in 1492.

The twilight years of Moorish rule inSpain saw the flowering of Nasridart, which demonstrated a poetic flair for ornamentation and balancedcombination of materials. Their crowning achievement is, of course,the palatial complex of the Alhambrain Granada, with its intricate walldecorations, patios, tricklingfountains, mosques, defense towersand adjoining Generalife gardens.

Pealba de Santiago (Len).Church of Saint James

San Cebrin de Mazote (Valladolid). I glesia mozrabe

San Miguel de Escalada (Len). Church of San Miguel

Granada. View of the Alhambra

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The Moors who remained

With the Christian advance entire Moorish communities came under Christian rule, as farmers andskilled craftsmen. They were the Mudejars from the Arabic for those permitted to remain anddeveloped a style which flourished especially from the 12th to 14th century, though it continues tohave an influence even today.Far from being hermetic, Mudejar art adapted and changed the styles that prevailed at any giventime. Thus, while earlier Mudejar creations are clearly influenced by Romanesque and Gothic, wecan also talk of Renaissance Mudejar or Baroque Mudejar. And we can even detect Mudejar forms inmany bullrings, train stations, and other public buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries.Among the jewels of Mudejar during the Romanesque period are several churches around Arvalo(vila), Sahagn (Len) and Toledo. The synagogues of Toledo, and many of Toledos towers,churches and palaces are examples of Gothic Mudejar. In Tordesillas, the Convent of Santa Clara

incorporates the remains of a Mudejar palace similar to the Alczar del Rey Don Pedro in Seville,Andalusias most exceptional Mudejar monument. The cloister of Guadalupe Monastery inExtremadura is also noteworthy. Perhaps the finest examples of Mudejar are to be found in Aragn,especially in Teruel with its 13th- and 14th-century towers and cathedral.

Both the a rt of the Sephardic Jews and tha t of the Christians interritory formerly under Moorishrule incorporated Arabic styles, giving b irth to the Mudejar style,

whose influence was still felt up tothe beginning of the 20th century.

Tordesillas (Valladolid).Convent of Santa Clara

Sahagn (Len). Church of San Tirso

Sevilla. Royal Alczares

Coca (Segovia). CastleTeruel. Church of San Martn

Toledo. Trnsito SynagogueToledo. Synagogue of Santa Mara la Blanca

The silent splendour of Sepharad

First arriving under the Romans, theJewish community in Spain played animportant role, socially and culturally, inthe land they called Sepharad. Rather thandevelop a separate art, Spanish Jewsabsorbed what existed around them as ameans of artistic expression. Thus, theyadapted many Moorish and, later,Mudejar forms as the most suited to their needs.Spain preserves many medieval calls or juderas Jewish quarters some asevocative as the judera in Crdoba(birthplace of Maimonides), the call inGirona, and the Besal call with its ritual baths.Part of the Sephardic legacy are three of the oldest and most beautiful synagoguesin Europe. Santa Mara la Blanca, inToledo, was built in the 13th century.Also in Toledo is the Trnsito Synagogue, built a hundred years later under the patronage of the Spanish kings treasurer,

with fine Mudejar plasterwork and woodencrusted with mother of pearl. The third,in Crdoba, is the only survivingsynagogue in Andalusia. Remains of other synagogues are to be found innumerous Spanish towns, includingTudela, Agreda and Segovia.

s

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THE QUEST FOR PERFECTION

Valladolid. Convent of San Gregorio cloisters

Santiago de Compostela (A Corua). Facade of the Cathedral

HE end of the 15th century saw the birth of a new

world, in more ways than one. The Middle Ages

were truly over. The discovery of America opened a whole new

range of possibilities. Man

embarked on a voyage of

scientific discovery, armed

with an unsatiable thirst

for knowledge. He no longer sought perfection in theology, but

in the physical world. This is the age of order and reason, when

at first artists looked for inspiration in the classical ideals of

antiquity, then experimented with the elaborate forms of Baroque,

only to turn full circle with the Age of Enlightenment and its

Neoclassical norms.

Madrid. Prado Museum. Juan de Juanes: The Last Supper

T


15/242928

The Italian style radically changed Spanish architecture at the start of the Renaissance. Humanism spelt a return to classical forms.

Winds of change

Events toward the end of the 15th century were to change Spain beyondrecognition. The marriage of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabel of Castile brought about a union of sorts between the two kingdoms. Andthe discovery of the New World was to change Spains destiny forever.From the artistic and cultural point of view, the winds of change blewfrom Italy. Humanistic thought permeated all. Art was inspired by theclassic ideals of ancient Greece and Rome.In Spain, Renaissance architecture was characterized by a taste for exterior ornamentation. Facades were covered with a profusion of decorative details reminiscent of silver filigree, which earned this particular style the name of Plateresque, meaning literally silversmith-

like.The Hospital of Santa Cruz in Toledo was the first example in Spain of this new movement, and before long the style had swept the country:the Palace of Cogolludo (Guadalajara), the Town Hall of Seville, thefacade of the University of Salamanca... all show the profligate hand of Plateresque architects.

Toledo. Cathedral. Choir

Granada. Palace of Charles V

Salamanca. Facade of the University

Toledo. Santa Cruz (Holy Cross) Hospital

Cogolludo (Guadalajara). Ducal Palace

Towards 1530 the Plateresque stylewas superseded by more restrained,classic Renaissance architecture, asin the work of Alonso deCovarrubias of Toledo or Gil deHontaon in Salamanca. The Palaceof Charles V which Pedro Machuca built within the Alhambra in Granadais an example of pure Italian-styleRenaissance. Also in Granada, Diegode Siloe designed the citys cathedraland, elsewhere in Andalusia, Andrsde Vandelvira filled the towns of

Jaen, Baeza and Ubeda withRenaissance palaces.The same Italian spirit is seen in the paintings of Pedro Berruguete, Juande Borgoa, and the Raphael-influenced Juan de Juanes, whoworked in Valencia.Sculptors, too, were swept up by theItalian aesthetic. The greatest wasAlonso de Berruguete, the mostSpanish of them, for already onedetects a Baroque flair in hissculptures. He worked especially inValladolid and Toledo (the choir of Toledo cathedral is his masterpiece).Other sculptors, such as Juan de Juniand Damian Forment, were morefaithful to classical Renaissanceserenity.

beda (Jan). Salvador Chapel


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3130

Baroque architecture, Spanish style

Baroque architecture took hold in Spain very gradually. Indeed, the firstBaroque buildings at the beginning of the 18th century owed much tothe sobriety of Herreras works. This can be seen for example in the

designs of Juan Gmez de Mora, Alonso Cano, or Francisco de HerreraEl Mozo.Some years would pass before the Baroque style took hold with all itsunfettered force. In honour of architect Jos de Churriguera, SpanishBaroque architecture is known by the tongue-twisting name of Churrigueresque, though its chief exponent was to be Pedro de Ribera.

The Divine Morales and El Greco were exceptions to the rule impothe austerity of Philip IIs court: a sober, almost severe aesthetic that inspired Herraran design, whose best expression was the Monastery o El Escorial .

The austerity of Philip II

During the second half of the 16th century, King Philip II ruled Spain downto the last detail. His personal taste also governed Spanish artists, so we cantalk of an official, court-approved art, as opposed to the unsanctionedactivity of independent artists. Perhaps not surprisingly, the best art was produced by the second group, which included Luis de Morales, whosemysticism earned him the moniker of The Divine, and the Crete-bornDomenico Theotocopuli, El Greco, who after an unsuccessful sojourn in thecourt settled in Toledo to silently indulge his highly spiritual conception of art. The legacy he left in Toledo is impressive, shared between the museumnamed after him, hospitals, the cathedral and churches such as Santo Tom,where his masterpiece the Burial of Count Orgaz hangs.One notable contribution of official art under Philip II was the so-calledHerreran style, named after architect Juan de Herrera, which was a reflectionof the kings austere reaction to Renaissance humanism. Herrera gave shapeto the grandiose and very Castillian monastery-palace of San Lorenzo delEscorial. The style was repeated in the cathedral of Valladolid and the Lonja,or commercial exchange, in Seville, and in many other buildings thatconformed to the strict rules of the day.

Madrid. Prado Museum. Morales:Virgin and Child

Madrid. San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts. El Greco: Saint Jerome

Madrid. Facade of the City Hall

Madrid. Municipal Museum. Detail of the facade

El Escorial (Madrid). Monastery of San Lorenzo

Toledo. Church of Santo Tom: El Greco:Burial of the Count of Orgaz

s

s s


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3332

The image makers

If the 17th century has come to beknown as the Golden Age of Spanishart, it is largely due to the work of Spains painters and image makers.Religious imagery was a particularlySpanish art form, very different fromthe sculptures being produced

elsewhere in Europe, which tendedtowards secular subjects. Spain produced religious images of expressive realism for use inaltarpieces and in processions. It wasessentially a folk art form, executedin gilded and polychrome wood.In Castile, Gregorio Fernndez was amaster at depicting pain and sorrowin his recumbent Christs andmourning Madonnas, used in HolyWeek processions. The NationalMuseum of Sculpture in Valladolidhouses the best of his and hiscontemporaries work.

The religious images of SpainsGolden Century constitute aunique case in Europeansculpture. The pathetic realism of the images echoed a profound popular devotion.

In Granada, the carved ImmaculateVirgins by the architect and painter Alonso Cano formed the basis of another school. His pupil, Pedro deMena, added to the masters elegancea measure of pathos and religiousemotion, especially in his Dolorosas.The work of another Granada artist,

Jos de Mora, showed the influenceof both Cano and Mena.In Eastern Spain, in the 18th century,sculpture was more European in itschoice of secular subjects. But themost popular sculptor of the region,Francisco Salzillo, spelt a return tothe religious theme. He was son of a Napolitan sculptor and his Italian parentage can be seen in his HolyWeek images and nativity figures, sodear to the tradition of Naples. TheSalzillo Museum in Murcia containsmuch of his work.

Seville. Hospital de la Caridad. Pedro Roldn: Holy Interment altarpiece

Seville. Convent of Las Teresas. La Roldana: Virgin and Child

Murcia. Salzillo Museum. The Last Supper

Granada. Cathedral. Alonso Cano: Bust of Saint Paul

Valladolid. Cathedral.Gregorio Fernndez: Ecce Homo

Seville. Museum of Fine Arts. Martnez Montas: Saint Dominic, Penitent

Andalusia had its own school of image carvers. Juan MartnezMontas is the most representativeof Seville. His Immaculate Virginsand boy-saints have an aura of serenity and tenderness that is verydifferent from the pathos of their

Castillian counterparts. Juan Gmezand Pedro Roldn were among hissuccessors, and this last in turn wassucceeded by his daughter, LuisaLa Roldana and the CordobanPedro Duque Cornejo, author of thechoir in his home towns cathedral.


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35

Velzquez, Zurbarn, Murillo and Ribera are g iants among the prodigious generation of art istswho shaped Spains GoldenCentury of art.

The golden age of painting

Spains golden century is, above all,identified with the painters of the day,some of whom are linchpins in thehistory of western art. The PradoMuseum in Madrid, the Fine ArtsMuseum in Seville and other Spanishmuseums are the custodians of thisastounding heritage.Many of the most prominent namescame from Andalusia, though the mostimportant, Seville-born DiegoVelzquez, soon moved from hissouthern homeland to set up shopwithin the Spanish court. This allowedhim among other things to personallymeet Rubens and to take part in twoofficial trips to Italy. Velzquez is anindisputable case of absolute genius, a producer of pure art, though there is a progression in his work: in the first,youthful stage he painted still lifes,genre paintings, mythological scenes(The Triumph of Bacchus, TheForge of Vulcan). A later period brought courtly portraits and royalthemes (The Surrender of Breda).After his second voyage to Italy he produced his most mature works,including Las Hilanderas (TheSpinners) and Las Meninas (TheMaids of Honour).Extremadura-born Francisco deZurbarn moved first to Seville andthen to the court. He was a painter of religious themes, monks and saints.Seville was also the base for another of the greats, Bartolom Esteban Murillo,who achieved enormous popularity inhis time with his Immaculate Virginsand angelic boys portrayed with atenderness we might today find overlysentimental. But his genre paintingsand Biblical scenes show the hand of atrue master (Hospital de la Caridad,Seville). No less talented, though he enjoyed

less recognition, is Alonso Cano of Granada, who also painted Virgins andother religious themes (Granadacathedral). Juan Valds Leal of Sevilleis perhaps the most Baroque of themall, with his tremendista paintings onthe vanity of the world.Valencia is a case apart in Spanish painting of the day. Francisco Ribaltaintroduced the Italian chiaroscurotenebrist tradition in Spain, though itreached its greatest level with Jos deRibera, after a sojourn in Italy where heearned his nickname, Lo Spagnoletto(The Little Spaniard).

Madrid. Gallery in the Prado Museum

Bilbao (Vizcaya). Museum of Fine Arts. Ribera: Saint Jerome

Madrid. Prado Museum. Velzquez:The Topers, or the Triumph of Bacchus

Bilbao (Vizcaya). Museum of Fine Arts.Zurbarn: The Holy Family

Madrid. Prado Museum. Velzquez: detail of Las Meninas

34

Madrid. San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Murillo:San Diego de Alcal feeds the poor


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36

In its f inal stages, Baroque a rt became more moderat ed and works suthe Palace of Aranjuez show signs of Neoclassical serenity to come. Neoclassic ism, in its turn, had its ripos te in the genius of Goya, who usher in a new era, the Romantic Age.

The cold elegance of Neoclassicism

So much Baroque exuberance was bound to become overwhelming and cause a backlash. In the final stages of what still can be considered the Baroque period,Spanish art became more moderate in its approach, more restrained, guided by the more gentle manners by then prevailing in Italy and, especially, France.This coincided with the access to the throne of the Bourbon dynasty,following the Spanish War of Succession. French influence was decisive inthe 18th century, and is evident in Spains last great Baroque monuments, theroyal palaces of La Granja, Aranjuez or Madrid itself.The Spanish Royal Academy of Fine Arts was established in 1752, to pass judgement on what was and what wasnt proper artistic form. It looked toclassical art as the model. Reason, order and moderation were the new ideals.Architect Ventura Rodriguez embodied this transition. His abundant, andinfluential, work, which at first answered to Italian tenets, finally evolvedinto a detached Neoclassicism.

Madrid, especially, acquired a number of Neoclassical monuments, the foremostexample being the building that housesthe Prado Museum, by Juan deVillanueva. Gardens and avenues became populated with sculptures of demuredeities and mythological figures,including the statues of Cibeles, Neptuneor Apollo. Paintings, such as those byJos de Madrazo or the portraits byVicente Lpez, exuded a cold elegance.But it could not be long before the unrulySpanish artistic temperament would assertitself. There was an undercurrent of rebellion straining against the barriers of the Neoclassicism, and it burst forth with avengeance in the person of one of thegreatest artists of all time, Francisco deGoya. While his first works followed theclassic mold of the day in frescoes,early religious paintings, cartoons for tapestries, portraits soon Goya was to become an artist removed from his time, amodern painter in the broadest sense of the word, with his loose, expressive brushstrokes, and above all his free,nonconformist outlook. He is the forebear of a new artistic spirit, one that mistruststhe impositions of pure reason, puttingthe emphasis, instead, on sentiment. WithGoya, a new artistic day had been born.

Madrid. San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Goya: Burial of the Sardine

Madrid. Prado Museum. Goya: The Naked Maja

Aranjuez (Madrid). Royal Palace

Mxico. Cathedral

The extravagance of New World Baroque

Naturally, with Spain devoting muchof its efforts to the colonization of the Americas, Spanish art had anaffect on the New World. It was atwo-way traffic for, in turn, theAmericas provided indigenoustouches which tended to exaggeratethe extravagance of Spanish Baroque.This Ultra-Baroque was expressed in profusely ornate facades, altars and

altarpieces which displayed anuninhibited mixing of colours and thefrequent use of shiny tiles andencrusted mirrors. Mexico City,Guadalupe, Puebla, Cuzco, Lima andQuito all offer examples of thiscolonial art which, occasionally,would affect what was being produced in Spain itself.

Jerez de los Caballeros (Badajoz). Church of San Bartolom


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3938

URING the 19th century, the cult

to reason gave way to a discovery

of the value of feelings and sensitivity. It was the

start of a new cycle in art, one in which the idea

of freedom and

individuality are

foremost. It was the

age of Romanticism

which, in turn, would

make way for modern currents flowing through

art even today.

D

A NEW ART FOR A NEW ER

Bilbao (Vizcaya). Museum of Fine Arts. Andrs Corts: Seville Fair

Cuenca. Museum of Abstract Art

Madrid. Centro de Arte Reina Sofa

National Museum Madrid. Contemporary Arts Fair (ARCO) Barcelona. Domnech i Muntaner: Casa Lle i Morera


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4140

Romantic Impressions

Romanticism was essentially a literary, or existentialist, phenomenon. Romantic

thought was something difficult to expressin terms of architecture, for example.Instead, what coincided with the Romantic period in the 19th century was a sort of bastardized neoclassicism, in whichmedieval or renaissance elements wereadded on to classic forms. Architecture of the period is an eclectic mishmash of neo-this and neo-that: Neo-Gothic, Neo-Mudejar, Neo-Renaissance... The chief novelty in architecture was the use of newmaterials iron, glass and the new usesfor which buildings were designed railway stations, marketplaces...

The all-encompassing embrace of Modernism

During the last half of the 19th century, historical painting, a genre withclear literary connections, became all the rage. Artists like Casado delAlisal and Eduardo Rosales were wholeheartedly devoted to this fashion.Others, like Mariano Fortuny, were able to finally break away from thehistorical obsession to dedicate themselves more to experimenting with properly pictorial techniques, the effects of light, textures... Thisexploratory trend would find root in painters such as Santiago Rusiol,Aureliano de Beruete, Daro de Regoyos, Ramn Casas, Joaquim Mir, or Francisco Iturrino, who constitute the forefront of the SpanishImpressionists. The same ideals form the basis of the somewhat later work of Joaqun Sorolla. The best of these and other artists of the timeare displayed in Madrids Prado Museum.From 1890, the great industrial boom of Barcelona encouraged theemergence of a moneyed local bourgeoisie. This new middle classreadily embraced the ideals of the modernist spirit then sweeping Europe,giving them form in what is known as Catalan Modernisme, or Noucentisme. Cities such as Barcelona and Reus boast marvellous buildings imbued with this voracious aesthetic which aimed to envelopevery aspect of design, down to the furniture, fixtures and items of everyday use.The most original, and best known, exponent was, of course, AntonioGaud, whose personal genius nevertheless transcends the tenets of any particular movement. Such distinctive creations as the as-yet-unfinishedSagrada Familia Basilica, the Gell Park and some of the homes and buildings he designed in Barcelona and elsewhere express a very modernidea of total art, to which design of today owes much.

Spanish Romanticismencouraged art with an

historical or popular theme. Soon that gave way to theloose brush strokes and luminosity of the Spanish Impressioni sts and, l ater, to Modernism, when Gaud revolutionized architectural forms.

Barcelona. Gaud: detail of Casa Batll

Madrid. Centro de Arte ReinaSofa National Museum.

Rusiol: Gardens of Aranjuez. El cenador

Barcelona. Crculo del Liceo.Casas: detail of Afternoon Dance

Bilbao (Vizcaya). Museum of Fine Arts. Raimundo de Madrazo: Young Lady in a Garden

Barcelona. Gallery on Modern Art. Fortuny: detail of The Vicary

Madrid. Sorolla Museum: Beneath the Awning

El Roncal (Navarre). Benlliure: Gayarre Mausoleum

Cdiz. Museum of Fine Arts.Valeriano Domnguez Bcquer

s

s s

If Romanticism had any appropriateexpression in the visual arts, it was in

sculpture and, especially, painting, whichwere better suited to capture the theatricalquality of Romantic thought, particularlyin the choice of subject matter. We cansee this in the popular scenes by AntonioMara Esquivel, Federico de Madrazo or Valeriano Domnguez Bcquer.


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4342

Spanish Surrealism

Another especially vigorous -ism of theearly 20th century was Surrealism,formulated in the 1920s around AndrBreton and other writers. Spain contributeddecisively to this movement with two key

figures: Salvador Dal and Joan Mir. Dalfollowed a more orthodox surrealism in hisfirst years, then gave free rein to personalexperimentation and obsessions that werenot always artistically grounded. His work is displayed in an especially suggestivemanner in the Dal Museum in Figueres,and in Cadaques and Port Lligat (Girona).Mirs work also evolved from a primitivesurrealism to a more personal, very poeticform of expression. The Mir Foundationsin Barcelona and Mallorca maintain not

The advance of theavant-garde

At the turn of the century, Spanishimpressionists coexisted with painters of amore Romantic bent, such as Carlos Haesor Prez Villamil, and were joined byanother school of painters who practisedExpressionist Realism, including Nonell,Gutierrez Solana and Zuloaga. But soonafter the start of the 20th century, an ever increasing succession of avant-gardemovements burst onto the European artscene. Ironically, Spain on the one handwas more resistant than most countries tothese currents, but on the other handcontributed some of the greatest talent.The first, and most decisive, of the new

The European vanguard movements at the beginning of the 20th century included many Spanish a rtists, some assignificant as Picasso, Dal and Mir.

Bilbao (Vizcaya). Museum of Fine Arts. Solana: Streetwalkers

Bilbao (Vizcaya). Museum of Fine Arts.Zuloaga: Countess Matieu Noailles Madrid. Centro de Arte Reina Sofa National Museum. Salvador Dal: The great Masturbator

-isms that would shape 20th century artwas Cubism, whose birth date can be placed around 1908. And a Spaniard,Picasso, was its principal exponent.Pablo Picasso was much more than aCubist. He was a genius who assimilatedand practised all avant-garde movements.It can be said that his protracted and prolific career sums up all of 20th-centuryart. Aside from Picassos Cubism, thereare his pink and blue periods, hisNeoclassic stage, his Expressioniststage... all of which show an irrepressibleinner vitality that extended to painting,sculpture, ceramics, and graphic art.

only his material works, but keep alivemuch of his creative spirit.To get an idea of Spains decisivecontribution to 20th century art, one hasonly to view the permanent collection in

the Reina Sofia National Art Centre inMadrid. Painters of the stature of JuanGris, Mara Blanchard, Antoni Clav,Francisco Bores, and sculptors likeGargallo, Julio Gonzlez, Clar, ManoloHugu and others exemplify the differentmovements that have revolutionized art.The European contribution to thesemovements is also well represented inMadrid, not far away from the Reina Sofiacentre, in the Thyssen-BornemiszaCollection.

Barcelona. Picasso Museum. Pablo R. Picasso: Las Meninas despus de Velzquez (1957)


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4544

Art in a world withoutfrontiers

With Spains integration into Europein the last decades, Spanish art beatsanew to the rhythm of world art ingeneral. In this last quarter of the20th century, one can no longer distinguish frontiers between hereand there: more than ever before,artistic creation is a personaladventure.Spain continues to give the worldoutstanding artists. The work of architects like Jos Luis Sert, RicardoBofill, Calatrava or Rafael Moneo issought after abroad. Spanish visualart goes with the flow of worldwidetrends in art over the last decades,and Spain continues to nurture artistsof the first order, including Tapis,Barcel, Jose Mara Sicilia, or GarcaSevilla, as well as sculptors likeChillida, Susana Solano, Juan Muoz,Jaume Plensa, and Txomin Badiola.It can be said that all trends andfashions in world art are reflected inSpanish art, though it is difficult atthe end of the 20th century to talk of artistic movements as such. In thenatural continuation of the cycle thatstarted with Romanticism, each artistseeks his own personal space, andfollows his own individual quest for freedom and personal expression.Is it possible, in the age of the GlobalVillage, to speak of Spanish art asopposed to world art? That is aquestion for future generations of arthistorians. Meanwhile, it is left to usto sit back and enjoy the show.

Rebels with a cause

Two world wars brought about a lull in the formulation of new artistictrends in Europe, but post war prosperity, especially during the Sixties, brought new waves of creative innovations, this time not emanating fromParis, but New York: Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Pop Art...Spain was at the time politically removed from the western mainstream,and artistic creativity was often born of a spirit of rebellion. The most prominent artists collective of the time was El Paso, which groupedsuch painters as Tpies, Saura, Millares, Canogar or Feito. Of these,Tpies is the one who has achieved, in a long career, the greatestuniversal recognition. The Tpies Foundation in Barcelona gatherstogether paintings full of magic and poetry, along with sculptures, objts,and his extensive graphic work. The works of the El Paso members andother contemporary painters form the basis of the Museum of AbstractArt in Cuenca.

Spain con tinues to provide grea t talents to the diverse currents in world art, in every field: painters like Tpies and Barcel, sculptors likeChillida, architects like Bofill are some of the prominent names inmodern art.

Gijn (Asturias). Monument by Chillida

Work by Miquel Barcel(private collection)

Cuenca. Fundacin Juan March. Museum of Abstract Art.Tpies: Grande Equerre

Bilbao. Guggenheim Museum

Cuenca. Fundacin Juan March. Museum of Abstract Art.Saura: Brigitte Bardot (1959)

F M G B

, 2 0 0 0

s

s

Txomin Badiola: Manhatan dos

S u c e s i

n

A n t o n i o S a u r a

/ w w w . a

n t o n i o s a u r a . o

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V E G A P

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24/24

Text:Carlos Pascual

Translation:Mark Little

Photography:Turespaa Archives

De las reproducciones autorizadas VEGAP. Madrid, 2009 Sucesin Pablo Picasso. VEGAP. Madrid, 2009

Salvador Dal. Fundacin Gala Salvador Dal. VEGAP. Madrid, 2009 Sucesin Antonio Saura / www.antoniosaura.org. VEGAP. 2009

Fundacin Antoni Tpies. VEGAP. Madrid, 2009

Design:ngel Bellido

Published by: Turespaa

Secretara de Estado de TurismoMinisterio de Industria,

Turismo y Comercio

Printed by:GRAFOFFSET, S.L.

D.L. M-29999-2009NIPO: 704-09-395-9

Printed in Spain

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UNITED KINGDOM. LondonSpanish Tourist Office2nd floor, 79 New Cavendish StreetLondon W1A 6XB9 44 / 087 08 50 65 99) 44207/ 317 20 48www.spain.info/uk e-mail: [email protected]

UNITED STATES OF AMERICAwww.spain.info/us

Los AngelesTourist Office of Spain8383 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 960BEVERLY HILLS, CAL 902119 1323/ 658 71 95) 1323/ 658 10 61e-mail: [email protected]

ChicagoTourist Office of SpainWater Tower Place, suite 915 East845, North Michigan Avenue

CHICAGO, ILL 60/6119 1312/ 642 19 92) 1312/ 642 98 17e-mail: [email protected]

MiamiTourist Office of Spain1395 Brickell AvenueMIAMI, Florida 331319 1305/ 358 19 92) 1305/ 358 82 23e-mail: [email protected]

Nueva YorkTourist Office of Spain666 Fifth Avenue 35th floorNEW YORK, N.Y. 101039 1212/ 265 88 22) 1212/ 265 88 64e-mail: [email protected]

Embassies in MadridCanada: Nez de Balboa, 35 39 914 233 250 ) 914 233 251Japan: Serrano, 1099 915 907 600 ) 915 901 321Republic of Ireland: Claudio Coello, 739 915 763 500 ) 914 351 677Russia: Velzquez, 1559 915 622 264 ) 915 629 712United Kingdom: Fernando El Santo, 169 913 190 200 ) 913 081 033United States of America: Serrano, 759 915 872 200 ) 915 872 303

el arte en espaÑa-en-2009

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