Folleto exposiciones Calder-Millares-Retratos EN by Fundación Botín

CALDER STORIES

EXHIBITIONS

29 JUNE 3 NOVEMBER GALLERY 2

Supported by:

Curator: Hans Ulrich Obrist Exhibition Design: Renzo Piano

Alexander Calder. Untitled (maquette for 1939 New York World’s Fair), 1938. Sheet metal, wood, wire, string, and paint. 14 3/4 x 19 3/4 x 9 3/4 in. Calder Foundation, New York. © 2019 Calder Foundation, New York / VEGAP, Santander

Continuing with its regular presentation of lesser-known aspects of the work of twentieth-century masters, Centro Botín is proud to present Calder Stories, an exhibition that sheds new light on the work of an essential figure of twentiethcentury art, through the curatorial vision of Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries. Alexander Calder’s legacy and influence are on a par with his prodigal genius; and the virtuosity and grace of his work are universally recognized. Yet, a closer examination of his extensive body of drawings, sculptures and objects of all kinds also reveals an exceptional intelligence of space and forms, and a revolutionary manner of capturing movement. This Alexander Calder. Sphere Pierced by Cylinders, 1939. Wire and paint. 83 x 34 x 43 in. Calder Foundation, New York. © 2019 Calder Foundation, New York / VEGAP, Santander. Photo: Tom Powel Imaging

exhibition brings together an extraordinary collection of seldom-seen work in all media, which demonstrate just how visionary and profoundly modern Calder’s art is, and how contemporary it continues to be more than forty years after his passing. For over twenty years, Hans Ulrich Obrist has been researching artists’ unrealized projects. This has informed his curatorial scope for Calder Stories. For the first time, Obrist explores the work of a Modern Master through this prism. His interest lies in deciphering the complexity of the creative process through the exploration of its documentation —sketches, drawings, and maquettes— which is particularly salient in

the case of works that remained incomplete. There is perhaps a spontaneity in those works, which may become less visible when they take their final form. Obrist’s choice of other completed projects by Calder to complement his selection was also informed by the way in which they tell the story of a thought from its origin to the various iterations it may take, hence revealing the intricacy of a creative gesture. In that light, it is all the more interesting to think about how Calder was able to make miniature works of art as much as monumental ones. Furthermore, one becomes aware of how smaller works contain the essence of a much larger object; indeed, the remarkable sense of scale in each work enables one to imagine what it might have been like if rendered in a bigger format. The story of Calder’s intuitive creative process is told through the grouping of works in a wide range of media, each relating to specific projects, many of which

were commissioned by some of the most prominent architects in the 20th Century such as Wallace K. Harrison, Percival Goodman, and Oscar Nitzschke; or by such visionaries as the French auctioneer turned race car driver Hervé Poulain, who asked Calder to paint a BMW 3.0 CSL that would compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. Turning a car into a moving painting, Calder embraced velocity —a quintessential element of Modern culture— as a fundamental part of his formal vocabulary. Throughout his career, Calder kept coming up with new concepts, and some works in this exhibition tell of this constant engagement with innovation until the very end of his life. We are also happy to present digital animations that extend our understanding of many drawings depicting time-space notations for ballets, which Calder produced through the 1930s and early 1940s: not only was the artist interested in capturing movement, but his sculpting of it also took the guise of

choreography. One therefore thinks of an all-encompassing approach to art making, a Gesamtkunstwerk of sorts. Centro Botín has entrusted Renzo Piano with the staging of the exhibition. The great architect who designed Centro Botin returns to Santander and, for the first time, he envisions the work of an artist in one of his own buildings. In 1983,

Piano staged a major retrospective of Alexander Calder in Turin. Through his design, he enhances one’s understanding of lightness, suspension and movement in the work of Alexander Calder; one also comes to realize how these concepts drive his architecture in manners that hint at the fact that Calder has also been a great source of inspiration.

MORE INFORMATION ON THE ACTIVITIES BROCHURE AND AT WWW.CENTROBOTIN.ORG

HOURS Winter opening hours (October to May) Tuesday to Sunday, 10am – 8pm.

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Summer opening hours (June to September) Tuesday to Sunday, 10am – 9pm.

PORTRAITS: ESSENCE AND EXPRESSION

8 JUNE 15 SEPTEMBER GALLERY 1 Curator: María José Salazar

PERMANENT GALLERY 1

Francisco Gutiérrez Cossío is one of the most important artists to have come from Spain. In Portrait of My Mother, painted in 1942, he captures the serene and kind spirit of the character in an image that, despite the strict construction in various planes, favours curved lines that soften the contours. Here Cossío also used glazes and sprinkled the surface of the canvas with white dots to create the characteristic atmosphere of his paintings.

Closed Every Monday. 1 January and 25 December. Workshop Índigo Workshop Cobalto

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General admission: €8. Free admission (upon the presentation of relevant documents): Friends of Centro Botín, holders of the Pass, children under 16, unemployed, sponsors and press with accreditation as well as cardholders of: ICOM, CIMAM, IAC, Sotheby’s Preferred and SOY de Mutua Madrileña.

Group admission: €6 per person. -between 8 and 30 people (guide included)-.

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Until 15 September

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Untitled. 1968. Paint on paper. 36,5 x 44,5 cm. Elvireta Escobio Collection. © Manolo Millares. VEGAP, Santander, 2019

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#CalderStories #Millares

to mainland Spain in 1955, Manolo Millares underscores the spontaneity of the stroke, the primacy of mental processes and the expressive use of material.

Until 3 november

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CALDER STORIES

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Manolo Millares was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in January 1926 and died prematurely in Madrid in August 1972. He belongs to a group of artists who grew up during the Civil War and came to age in the 1950’s a rather obscure time in Spain. Together, they instigated a cultural movement and produced work that was critical of the state of the country. Millares was a transgressive, brilliant and committed artist, and an unquestionable ethical role model.

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En portada: Alexander Calder. Rouge triomphant, 1963. Sheet metal, rod, wire, and paint. 110 x 230 x 180 in. © 2019 Calder Foundation, New York / VEGAP, Santander. Manolo Millares Untitled. 1968. Paint on paper. 70 x 100 cm. Elvireta Escobio Collection. © Manolo Millares. VEGAP, Santander, 2019

In his works on paper one can discern a thread that runs throughout his whole trajectory: evolving from sketches of family portraits with figurative images to surrealist or constructivist compositions, his style is

ultimately predicated on broken brushwork, with grand strokes, using graphite and watercolour as well as Indian ink, yet in essence remaining true to his painting. This approach is an evident and powerful example of the third way opened in the arts in the mid-twentieth century. His drawing initiates a new form of expression, refusing to accept it as a mere adjunct to other disciplines in art. The change he brought about, in which he lends priority to the line and the gesture, was not just conceptual, as there is also an evident predominance of sentiment over mere appearance. In all his work on paper, with the obvious exception of his early work prior to moving

The artist’s evolution runs parallel with the gradual yet evident rupture with traditional methods. Now, drawing is liberated and admits the pre-eminence of colour, applied even with expressionist gestural brushwork. He depicts objects and landscapes, but without respecting their forms, and instead of likeness, he now places emphasis on poetry and musicality, expression and communication. Above all else, rather than depiction or representation, what truly matters are ideas and the mental process. Millares’ output is like a silent scream of protest, powerful and dramatic, expressive yet quiet, in which the gesture is to the fore, and communicative power takes precedence. His life’s work can be divided into four main phases: firstly, his beginnings and formative years (1945-1954), which encompasses a time of academic, naturalist drawings (1945-1948) which then gave way to a

process of expressionist research and experimentation (1948-1954), starting out from Surrealism and evolving towards Constructivism and Figuration, in which he created his Pictografías, a synthesis of his creative process; secondly, a period of consolidation and inventiveness in which his brushstroke is a vehicle to convey his life experiences (1955-1963); his third phase (1964-1968) is one of plenitude, protest and forcefulness in which his work finally reaches artistic maturity, and his works on paper open a new path in drawing in Spain; finally, his fourth and last period (19691971) in which, following a trip to the Sahara, he creates brighter and more poetic works yet without relinquishing one bit of their energy. His palette becomes brighter in colour and his gestures more softened, though not for that any less expressive, and without ever abandoning his rebelliousness. He combined the luminosity of the support itself with the harmony of the stroke and the use of calligraphy as a backdrop for compositions. Millares died in Madrid in 1972 at the height of his creative maturity, leaving behind a formidable body of work.

MORE INFORMATION ON THE ACTIVITIES BROCHURE AND AT WWW.CENTROBOTIN.ORG

Juan Gris painted Harlequin in 1918, at the height of his creative powers, synthesising the forms to a very few elements and reducing the motifs in a simple composition that develops and presents the human figure through overlapping planes. He also uses the character to emphasise colour which he always sets off with blue.

In The Mask Maker José Gutiérrez Solana painted the portrait of his friend Emeterio in his workshop in Las Vistillas in Madrid. The artist captures his friend’s personality in a symmetric composition, with wellbalanced spaces. The work comes from his late production and, notwithstanding the overall blackness, it is a colourful painting endowed with an atmosphere all of its own. Daniel Vázquez Díaz, Mujer de rojo, C.1931.

Juan Gris, Arlequín, 1918

Essence and expression are the two keynotes defining this collection of twentieth-century masterpieces, which its owner, Jaime Botín, has generously deposited at Centro Botín for its per manent display.

All these works share three common features that define and personalise the group: maximum expression through colour and light; the use of the figure as a common means of communication; and, finally, portraiture, the true essence of the selection.

These eight works of undisputed visual quality are by renowned, prestigious artists: Francis Bacon, Juan Gris, Francisco Gutiérrez Cossío, José Gutiérrez Solana, Henri Matisse, Isidre Nonell, Joaquín Sorolla and Daniel Vázquez Díaz. They were all produced in the early twentieth century at the height of the avant-gardes, a complex period that saw a break from tradition and the rise of a wealth of overlapping art istic and aesthetic movements.

Self Portrait with Injured Eye was painted by Francis Bacon in 1972, a few months after the suicide of his model and lover, George Dyer. The painting expresses Bacon’s solitude, bereavement and his deep sorrow following his loss, while at once capturing his self-destructive personality through a disquieting, violent image with geometric forms that decompose his face and produce a highly dynamic effect.

In Spanish Woman, Henri Matisse recalls his journey to Spain in 1911 to visit the Prado Museum and to see Andalucía, from where he returned to France with luggage full of brocades and mantillas and a power ful new light in his palette, that would be materialised in clean, open colours, which he does not mix with chiaroscuros, thus translating into a lighter and more subtle, more harmonious style. Isidre Nonell painted this Half-body Figure in 1907, at a time when he abandoned his portraits of gypsy women, the main characters in his works until then, and started to paint more serene, collected and melancholic white-faced women. He

Joaquín Sorolla, Al baño. Valencia, 1908.

also opted for colour as the sole element used to model the figure, superposing whites and blues to contrast with the black hair of his models. To The Water by Joaquín Sorolla is a work of great sensibility and refinement which was painted in the summer of 1908 on the beach of Valencia. Especially worth underscoring is the delicate use of light and his restrained palette, rendered with thick brushstrokes and bright contrasts. Daniel Vázquez Díaz is one of portraiture’s greatest exponents. Woman in Red was painted in 1931, after the artist settled in Madrid. Particularly notable is the expression and emotion on the face of the character and the essence as a reflection of a spirit that transcends expression itself. A sombre and nostalgic air hovers over all these paintings, as if shrouded in a great transparent mantle of melancholy. María José Salazar

MORE INFORMATION ON THE ACTIVITIES BROCHURE AND AT WWW.CENTROBOTIN.ORG