First Lady of Antiquity
Occupied since the Paleolithic era, the Iberian Peninsula is full of traces left by the various populations that came to integrate with the Iberians, first Celts, then Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians. Among the first testimonies found in Spain, the Lady of Elche sheds light on the habits and customs of her time. This female bust in limestone dated to the5th century BC is surprisingly well-proportioned, reflecting a strong Greek influence. However, her jewelry and tunic are a perfect example of Iberian dress. The cavity in her back was probably used to store relics. Whether she is a goddess, a queen or a deceased person, she remains the centerpiece of the National Archaeological Museum (MAN) of Madrid, founded in 1867 by Queen Isabel II. It also houses Iberian sculptures, Roman mosaics, Visigoth, Hispano-Muslim and medieval remains
Beginning of the painting
The manuscripts illuminated by Mozarabic monks in the tenth century seem to have been the first manifestations of Spanish pictorial art. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, mural paintings proliferated in churches: without perspective, they show characters with hieratic postures. One of the first expressions of Romanesque art in Castile is located in the heart of the old town of Leon. The Royal Pantheon of the Real Colegiata de San Isidoro, "the Sistine Chapel of Romanesque art", is covered with murals from the 12th century depicting scenes from the New Testament (the Last Supper, the Crucifixion) and from country life. Realistic details characterize the emerging Spanish style. During the Gothic period, in the 14th and 15th centuries, religious altarpieces merged the codes of Italian, French and Flemish art. The Crucifixion painted by Ferrer Bassá (1285-1348,) and preserved in the Valencia Museum of Fine Arts, shows a suffering Christ, stylized but not idealized. A miniaturist painter, Bassá turned away from French teachings to the Florentine school, earning him the nickname of "Catalan Giotto". Little by little, the artists of the 14th century also favored the Italian influence. The treatment of the perspective and the glorification of the human body are turned upside down. In Valencia, Fernando de Llanos introduced the techniques of Leonardo da Vinci. This prefigured the dramatic intensity of 16th century painting.
The Golden Age
Born in Crete and trained in the Venetian school, El Greco arrived in Spain in 1570 and his work became a highlight of European art from 1600. El Greco, influenced by Titian and Tintoretto, mastered like no other the art of forms and colors that give his paintings an expressiveness tinged with spirituality.
Four painters embody the Spanish Golden Age. Francisco de Zurbarán, with his portraits of saints, was distinguished above all as a painter of monastic life, while Bartolomé Esteban Murillo expressed the Andalusian soul through his religious compositions, from his Immaculate Saints to his Holy Families, without forgetting his realistic scenes such as The Young Beggar. Fray Juan Sánchez Cotán, with his famous bodegones
, is the pioneer of the Spanish still life. However, it is Diego de Velázquez who best represents this Spanish Golden Age. As the official painter of the court of Philip IV, Velázquez showed an unprecedented talent. The famous Meninas(Prado Museum) is a complex work where the elements of interpretation are hidden behind the appearance of an ordinary scene of palace life. Velázquez made two trips to Italy. At that time, the links between painters of different European schools were growing closer and exchanges were increasing.Goya, Master of History
The creative impulse weakened during the 18th century in Spain, but it was marked by one artist: Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828). Goya painted both official portraits, including Charles IV and his family, and historical dramas: El dos de mayo and El tres de mayo (1814), preserved in the Prado Museum, which became symbols of Spanish resistance against the French during the Spanish War of Independence. Through Goya's paintings The Shootings and The Charge of the Mamelukes, we witness the May 1808 insurrection of the Madrilenians against Napoleonic troops. The artist revolutionized the historical genre by capturing the moment like a photographer. Goya was also an outstanding engraver. His talent set the standard for modern art, especially the Romantic movement
Modernism
After studying the masters at the Prado, Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923) visited Paris in 1885. This genius all-rounder of painting quickly became famous. His talent allowed him to explore the psychology of his models as easily as the play of movement and light. Hailed as the leading figure of Spanish Impressionism, his work can be seen in the Sorolla Museum
in Madrid and the Museum of Fine Arts in Valencia.At the beginning of the 20th century, a wave of Spanish artists headed for Paris. The French capital was known for its bohemian spirit. These artists from Madrid, Barcelona and the Basque Country played a major role in the turnaround in the visual arts. The figurehead of this pictorial revolution was none other than Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), who settled in Paris in 1904. He turned painting upside down with his constant questioning, his ability to metamorphose and sublimate reality. His work is lively and evolving: blue period, then pink, cubism, neoclassicism followed by a brief surrealist escape, then abstract, until the tragic expressionism of Guernica (1937) kept at the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid. Picasso relentlessly explored new means of expression. It was the prostitutes of Carrer d'Avinyó that inspired him to paint Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, a painting that prefigured the beginning of Cubism in 1907. His works can also be seen at the Museu Picasso in Barcelona and at the Museo Picasso Malaga
.Among the great names of Spanish modern art, two surrealists developed contrasting universes: Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí.
Joan Miró (1893-1983) was born in Barcelona. It was in Paris that he met other great Spanish artists like Picasso, but also the Surrealists. In love with Majorca, he settled there after the war, near Palma. You can now visit his studio residence, the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró. On the mainland, you can visit the Fundació Joan Miró
in Barcelona. Painter, sculptor, engraver and ceramist, Joan Miró is one of the few artists to have created a unique language that has become universal. Desnos called him a "mirobolant" painter, and he loved bright colors, especially blue. His forms on the border of lyrical abstraction evoke birds, stars and the dream world, whether in his engravings or his monumental works. Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) is the master of provocation and staging. His abundant work can be discovered in part at the Teatre-Museu Dalí in Figueres, his native city. Ironic visions of reality or frankly hallucinatory, his creations are the fruit of the exploration of the irrational through delirium, his famous "paranoid-critical method".The post-war period
The 1950s and 1960s saw the advent of a new generation of artists whose vitality and dynamism would not be recognized until after the death of Franco. These artists expressed themselves in many genres: social criticism, pop art and neo-realism.
Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012) was linked in turn to tachism, expressionism and surrealism before combining collage, scratching and assembly techniques that would become his signature. Geometry, color and finally matter are at the heart of his concerns. Along with the sculptor Eduardo Chillida and the painter Arroyo, he is one of the strongest artistic personalities of his generation. The Fundació Antoni-Tàpies in Barcelona invites us to immerse ourselves in his world
In Madrid in the 1950s, the "el Paso" group renewed painting techniques. Its representatives, including Antonio Saura, Manuel Millares and Manuel Rivera, introduced alternative materials into their paintings, such as fabric or metal canvas. In the 1960s, the painters Juan Genovés and Rafael Canogar claimed a pop language that was critical of Franco's regime.
Modern and contemporary art, both Spanish and international, is on display at the sublime Museo Guggenheim in Bilbao, which also exhibits the talents of tomorrow. Let's stay in the Basque Country to discover two unmissable sculptors. The sculptures of Eduardo Chillida (1924-2002) adorn a multitude of public spaces, especially in San Sebastian, his native city, where his famous Wind Comb can be admired at the end of La Concha Bay. Another great contemporary sculptor of Basque origin, Jorge Oteiza (1908-2003) is considered the pioneer of abstract sculpture in Spain. The Jorge Oteiza Foundation was inaugurated in 2003 in Alzuza. Jorge Oteiza designed the main façade of the Santuario de Arantzazu, in Guipúzcoa, which is decorated with fourteen apostles lined up over 12 meters.
La Movida
The censorship imposed by Franco since 1939 collapsed overnight as Juan Carlos I restored democracy. Accompanied by an economic miracle, the energy of liberation animated the beginning of the 1980s, especially in the Malasaña district and Calle del Pez in Madrid. The revival of nightlife is reflected in the emergence of cultural and festive places, bars and art galleries. In the same tone, the saturated images of the Madrid photographer Ouka Leele inspire the younger generation. The Bárbara de Braganza room of the Mapfre Foundation is nowadays dedicated to photography
Born in 1956, Alberto García-Alix is one of the major Spanish photographers of the 1980s. His sensitive work documents the underground, the night, rock and porn like no other. His black and white portraits make him an essential witness of the Movida. Winner of the National Photography Award in 1999, his work is exhibited around the world.
The photographs of Chema Conesa, born in 1952, constitute a biography in images of his country. The photographer Ramon Masats, founder of the collective La Palangana, is praised for his role in "the professionalization of Spanish photography and his great influence on later generations of photographers
Street-art trend
Following the wild explosion of the Movida, Madrid's graffiti artists are having a field day. The best place to go is to stroll through Madrid's popular neighborhoods like Lavapiès. Calle de los Embajadores is known as the emblematic street of urban art. Graffiti, frescoes or tags, artists invest the walls, windows, bus shelters and iron curtains of stores. Surrealist, naive or committed, they do not leave indifferent. At the bottom of Calle Argumosa, the Tabacalera is the unofficial temple of street art. Located in a former tobacco factory, it has a garden that is popular with Madrid's youth. Outside, the walls offer a vast panorama of urban art. It should be noted that in 2014, the city launched the "Muros" project aimed at animating the walls of this area. Among the 57 graffiti, there is that of Suso 33, a famous Madrid artist who has gone from the streets to museums
In Barcelona, street art exploded in the 2000s. Nothing stops it, the artists express themselves without any limit. All the talents stop in Barcelona, a city that suddenly becomes the world capital of urban art. The unoccupied places are then taken by storm. The most representative, the Carboneria, is now the beating heart of creation. Open to the public. Good to know, the Montana gallery has been dedicated to this artistic genre for about ten years
On the northwest coast of Spain, the Vigo-City of Colour festival revalorizes its heritage through urban art. Every summer, the walls of Vigo are entrusted to invited graffiti artists. About fifty frescoes are to be discovered. From one end of the Spanish peninsula to the other, metropolises and small towns encourage creativity in all its forms!
