Past exhibitions

The discovery of “other” Chagall

Chagall. A Cry of Freedom has brought another vision of this great master of 20th-century painting to the public: beyond the fantasy of his scenes and his astonishing palette, this exhibition revealed the extent to which his work reflects his personal trajectory and, with it, all the drama of the 20th century: In photography, the exhibitions devoted to the Swede Christer Strömholm and the American Consuelo Kanaga, in Madrid and Barcelona, respectively, also provided an in-depth look at the work of two artists who, despite their importance in contemporary photography, were little known in Spain until now.

From Leonora Carrington’s magical journey to contemporary metropolises

The first quarter of the year has been marked by the powerful figure of Leonora Carrington and the extensive anthology that we have had the satisfaction of dedicating to her, with an enthusiastic reception by the public. In photography, Ilse Bing‘s exhibition traveled from Madrid to the KBr, where she shared the billboard with Anastasia Samoylova and the project “Image cities”, with which she won the first call (2021) of the KBr Photo Award. In Madrid, Facundo de Zuviría‘s “Images of Buenos Aires” provided an evocative and melancholic counterpoint to Leonora Carrington’s powerful images.

The presence of Gallic art in Spain and photography of yesteryear and today

Our galleries in Madrid and Barcelona are hosting works by Lee Friedlander; Jorge Ribalta; Adolf Más; Bleda and Rosa; Paolo Gasparini; Carlos Pérez Siquier and a selection of photographs from our collections. In addition, the exhibition The French Taste reveals the presence of French art in Spain during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries through paintings, drawings, sculptures, sumptuary and decorative arts and everyday objects.

Color and black and white, past and present, coexist in our exhibition halls

We start the year with an explosion of color, the faces of Jawlevsky and the places of Tomoko Yoneda in Madrid, and the shamanic scenes of Claudia Andujar in Barcelona, culminating with the works of Miró related to poetry in the exhibition Miró Poema. Bill Brandt lands in Madrid and our Barcelona galleries welcome two masters of contemporary photography, Garry Winogrand and Nicholas Nixon.

Photography and sculpture in a year when COVID-19 has also been prominent

Despite the temporary closure of our exhibition halls to help contain the spread of COVID-19, throughout 2020 we have been able to exhibit the realistic photography of Carlos Pérez Siquier in Barcelona and, in Madrid, the intimate portraits of Richard Learoyd, Lee Friedlander’s social landscape of America and the dialogue between two geniuses of sculpture: Rodin-Giacometti.

Different perspectives of the world at the beginning of the 20th century

Photography with a capital letters has reached our Madrid and Barcelona Exhibition halls with the modern outlook of Berenice Abbott and the camera obscura of Richard Learoyd. Our photography exhibitions are completed by the dedicated work of Anthony Hernandez. The Russian avant-garde evokes the new and changing times that the October Revolution was bringing in, with the From Chagall to Malévich: art in revolution exhibition, and the portraits by Giovanni Boldini provide us with a social commentary on the early years of the 20^th century.

Photography in Madrid and Barcelona. The vision of Derain, Balthus and Giacometti

The genius of Brassaï, the savage intensity of Van der Elsken and the posed shots of Shomei Tomatsu are coming to our Madrid and Barcelona exhibition halls for a springtime of photography. The exhibition Derain, Balthus and Giacometti explores the friendship between the three great painters and the influence this had on their artistic careers.

Interwar Italian Art, Hell according to Rodin

Delicacy infuses our exhibition rooms with Return to Beauty in Madrid and Hell according to Rodin arriving in Barcelona. The humanity of Nicholas Nixon, Peter Hujar’s portrait of the New York underground scene, the reflectiveness of Lewis Baltz, and Albert Renger-Patzsch with The perspective of things make up our photographic program.

Renoir in Barcelona; the Fauves in Madrid

A masterpiece in the history of art – Le Moulin de la Galette by Auguste Renoir – comes to our galleries. Bruce Davidson and Hiroshi Sugimoto represent the opposite poles of photography. And the depth of color of Fauvist art imbues Madrid.

We launched the Barcelona exhibition rooms with the exhibition entitled The Triumph of Color, courtesy of some exceptional loans from the Musée d’Orsay and the Orangerie. This was a fantastic year for photography, with exhibitions by the great photographers Paul Strand and Garry Winogrand, living legend Josef Koudelka and the social criticism of Paz Errazuriz.

Picasso and the new photography gallery

The new photography gallery at Calle Bárbara de Braganza in Madrid opened to the public with more than 800 square meters dedicated to this form of artistic expression. Picasso, Sorolla and Pontormo rounded off a year defined by the consolidation of our programing as a cultural benchmark.

The Impressionists, Post-Impressionists and Realists of the Italian Macchiaioli were the stars of a year in which we also featured work by Giacometti and a journey through the origins of Bohemian art.

We continued our strategy of collaborating with prestigious international institutions this year, exhibiting works from the collections of the Museé d’Orsay, the Centre Pompidou, the Kirchner Museum Davos and another 27 private museums and collections.

Masterpieces of Romanesque art, a huge exhibition on the world of fashion, drawings in the Fundación MAPFRE collections and the grand masters of photography were some of the different artistic expressions that provided a wealth of different experiences for our visitors this year.

The arrival of the Impressionists

This year was defined by the impact of the exhibition entitled Impressionism: A New Renaissance, along with the consolidation of our commitment to photography and the collaboration of internationally renowned institutions, allowing us to give the general public an insight into the work of artists who had been relatively unknown in Spain up to that point.

The collages of Marx Ernst, sculpture in Paris between 1905 and 1914, a selection of masterpieces of portraiture and an exhibition dedicated to that essential introduction to Italy for young upper-class men in the pre-war years, the “Grand Tour”, plus four exhibitions on contemporary photographers, consolidated our position on the international scene.

In 2008 we changed the direction of our programs, opening a door to what was going on in the 20th century beyond our borders, especially in Europe and America. This change of direction, along with the opening of the Recoletos exhibition rooms, gave a huge boost to our exhibition activities.

Contemporary modern art

During this period our exhibitions focused on looking back on the early days of modernity in Spain, with an emphasis on the key artists and movements of this period. The excellent response from visitors put us firmly on the cultural map.