Exhibition of Spanish contemporary art in the MMSI in the cross of the "Year of Russia - Spain"

MMSI, June 7 - October 30

Today in the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (Petrovka 25) opens the exhibition "Masterpieces of the XX century from the collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art Valencia (IVAM)». IVAM (Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno), opened in 1989, became the first museum of modern art in Spain. The emergence of IVAM marked a new stage in the cultural life of Valencia and has become an event of global significance in contemporary art. His collection of XX and XXI centuries is highly regarded throughout the world and annually attracts a huge number of visitors.

ED Reinhardt An abstract painting. 1940 Oil on canvas. Source: mmoma.ru

Symbolically, the collection of IVAM and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art in many respects close to each other. Each of them has over 10,000 exhibits and seeks to present a panorama of contemporary art in all its diversity, but essential to focus on the national heritage. No coincidence that the Moscow Museum of Modern Art has been chosen to host such an important exhibition.

IVAM Collection provides an extensive representation of both the achievements of avant-garde of the first decades of the twentieth century, and all the artistic currents of the postwar period. The key meeting took place in the art Julio Gonzalez - an innovative Spanish painter and sculptor of the first half of last century. The funds of the IVAM is the most extensive collection of his works. Creativity Julio Gonzalez in conjunction with the work of Uruguayan artist's early twentieth century, Torres Garcia opens an exhibition at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. In the first rooms of the exhibition also presents works of the most daring experimentalists 1920-30-ies - the kinetic sculptures of Alexander Calder, installation, Kurt Schwitters and Man Ray, Frantisek Kupka abstraction, as well as the classics of surrealism and Dada - Joan Miro, Marcel Duchamp, Andre Masson, Hans Arp.

Julio Gonzalez dancer with daisies. 1937. Iron, forging Source: mmoma.ru

Next exhibition presents the experimental flow post-war period, which allowed the artists of the time to express a whole new attitude. Here there are works by European masters like Antoni Tapies, Antonio Saura, Karel Appel, Ed Reinhardt, Pierre Soulages, and the great Americans of Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson. It also presents works by the American representatives of Pop Art, Richard Hamilton, James Rosenquist and later European painters in this direction - Eduardo Arroyo, the group "The team of Kronik" and others.

Since 1980 artists began to actively use new materials, new techniques and electronic instruments. IVAM could not respond to the emergence of new artistic trends, and appeared in his collection of work by authors such as Andre Alfaro, Miquel Navarro, John Davies, Bruce Nauman, Magdalena Abakanovits, Christian Boltanski, Eduardo Chilido, Juan Usle, some of these works are present at the exhibition "Masterpieces of the twentieth century." The art of the postwar period is also represented at the exhibition of works by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.

Pablo Picasso The artist at work. 1964 Gouache on paper. 96,8 x 72,3. Source: mmoma.ru

Since IVAM stored most significant and valuable collection of pictures in Spain, a separate section of the exhibition is dedicated to photo art for the last century. Among other fotoshedevrov twentieth century will be one of the works of great Russian photographer Alexander Rodchenko .

According to the curator Harauty Francisco, the exhibition of selected works from the collection of IVAM, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art makes it possible to trace the history of XX century art, without ignoring any of its constituent periods. The story itself brings us to the point marked by the circumstances and events that changed the direction of art, changing its funds in accordance with the nerve of each era.

Robert Rauschenberg Shadow. 1964 Plexiglass, lithography, metal frame, a light bulb. 29,7 x 37 x 38,3. Source: mmoma.ru

main objective of the project - to open a full-fledged dialogue between the two concepts of collections and museums, different but complementary. In the summer of 2012 in the Valencia Institute of Modern Art held a counter exhibition "Age of discovery: the Russian avant-garde artists from the collection of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.

Information on Curator:

Francisco Harauta - Professor of Philosophy at the University of Murcia, has lectured at many universities in Europe and America, advisory board member of IVAM, vice president of the board of trustees of the Centre of Art Reina Sofia. Francisco Harauta - not an art historian in the usual sense, as a philosopher who deals with the theory and history of ideas in the field of culture and fine arts. Curator's choice of works should provide museum visitors with the most comprehensive and interesting look at the art of XX century.

Source: press release MMSI