Exhibitions in 2011
A diversity of artistic expressions
This year saw our commitment to photography consolidated with the exhibitions of two great masters: Eugéne Atget and Gotthard Schuh, and the first retrospective in Spain on the work of Adam Fuss.
In our objective to bring a whole range of different artistic expressions to the general public, we curated various exhibitions that enabled us to enjoy, for the first and only time in Madrid, the masterworks of Romanesque art from Barcelona’s MNAC collection; the creations of Yves Saint Laurent featuring the art of fashion through a selection of his models, drawings, photographs and films; and finally a carefully-curated selection of drawings from our own collection in the exhibition entitled Hand with Pencil. 20th century drawings.
6 exhibitions in 2011
Gotthard Schuh
Parlez-moi d'amour, París, 1932
© Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur
Gotthard Schuh
This exhibition presented for the first time in Spain the work of photographer Gotthard Schuh (Berlin-Schöneberg D 1897- Küsnacht ZH 1969). Comprising 113 photographs, ninety-three of which were taken by Gotthard Schuh, the exhibition presented him alongside some of the most important Swiss photographers of that time, all of whom were members of the Kollegium of Swiss Photographers (Kollegium Schweizer Photographen) in the 1950s.
Yves Saint Laurent
First Pants Suit
Haute Couture Collection
Spring-Summer, 1967
© Hulton-Deutsch / Corbis / Latinstock
Yves Saint Laurent
The exhibition was based on a structured theme and encompassed around 150 haute couture and prèt-à-porter models as well as over 80 drawings, photographs and films. The staging of the creations selected for the exhibition was conceived as a theatrical progression from YSL’s beginnings as a designer at Dior with the famous collection “Trapèze” (1958) through to the magnificence of his evening gowns.
George Grosz
An evening in Berlin, 1929
Colecciones Fundación MAPFRE
Pencil in Hand: “20th Century Drawings”
This exhibition presented for the first time at the Recoletos gallery in Madrid a significant part of Fundación MAPFRE’s collection of 20th century drawings.
The exhibition “Hand with Pencil. Drawings from the 20th century” featured a carefully-curated selection of over one hundred drawings, giving an insight into the huge panorama of art from the last century both in Spain and abroad.
Eugène Atget
The Eclipse, April de 1912
Courtesy of George Eastman Museum
Eugène Atget: Old Paris
Fundación MAPFRE had the pleasure of presenting for the first time in Madrid the work of the French photographer Eugène Atget (Libourne, 1857 – Paris, 1927), an outstanding master whose contribution to the history of photography has been fundamental. His enigmatic images inspired many artists throughout the 20th century and continue to inspire today.
Altar frontal named Esquius
Second quarter of the 12th Century
Church of Santa María del castillo de Besora (Osona, Barcelona)
Museu National d'Art de Catalunya
Romanesque Splendor
This exhibition presented some of the masterpieces of Romanesque art from the MNAC collection, a privileged opportunity to view these artworks on their first – and probably only – visit to Madrid. Indeed, only at the Paris Expo of 1937had it been previously possible to view such a significant collection of works as the ones presented in this exhibition.
For Allegra, from the series My Ghost, 2009
Daguerreotyp
Collection of Richard Edwards, Aspen, Colorado
© Adam Fuss
Adam Fuss
This exhibition was the first retrospective in Spain of photographer Adam Fuss’s work, comprising fifty photographs dating from 1986 through to the present day. Adam Fuss’s art is an ongoing experience in every one of his projects; a corpus of revelations, sometimes fantastical and often inexplicable: light, water, flowers, birds, rabbits and serpents populate images full of beauty and mystery.