Espai Subirachs News

Subirachs' work in Zaragoza

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

La Lonja, the best known Renaissance style civil building in Aragon, provides an outstanding setting for this display of 111 works by Subirachs (60 sculptures, 29 drawings and 22 paintings). Judit Subirachs-Burgaya is curator of the exhibition, which traces the Catalan artist's work from 1949 to 2009. All the pieces included are part of the permanent collection of the future Centre Cultural Caixa Penedès Espai Subirachs (CCCPES).

A detailed 144-page catalogue, edited by Carlo Cambi, has been published for the exhibition. In addition to an introduction by the curator, it classifies and describes all the works exhibited.

Through Labyrinths

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

From 28 July 2010 to 9 January 2011 Barcelona's Centre de Cultura Contemporània (CCCB) is presenting an exhibition designed by Ramon Espelt with Òscar Tusquets as curator and Jorge Wagensberg acting in an advisory capacity.

The display reviews the concept and representation of the labyrinth throughout history and is illustrated with works in a range of formats, produced at different periods by artists from various countries.

For this exhibition the Espai Subirachs has provided the polychrome wooden sculpture Labyrinth II (1993).

From February 2011 onward the exhibition will be hosted by the Bancaja Foundation, which has coproduced it.

For further information:

Through Labyrinths (CCCB)

Giacometti in Saint Paul de Vence

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

From 27 June to 31 October 2010 the Fondation Maeght pays tribute to the sculptor who participated in the project for the Foundation's building, designed by the architect Josep Lluís Sert and located twenty minutes from Nice (France).

The exhibition, whose curator is Isabelle Maeght, includes 60 bronzes, 10 plaster casts, 20 paintings and over 80 drawings, engravings, lithographs, photographs and documents.

Visitors will have the opportunity to see two versions of the famous sculpture L'homme qui marche, as well as all nine versions of the Femme de Venise series.

For further information:

Fondation Maeght

IX International Sculpture Forum

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

With the participation of artists, gallery owners, museum conservators, art historians and critics, the programme includes talks and debates on the world of sculpture.

In conjunction with the symposium, the exhibition Seeing Sculpture – European Sculpture – Difference and Diversity, whose curators are Patrizia Bottallo and Rob Ward, will also be held in Turin. It will include work by 30 sculptors from 10 European countries and will run until 6 November 2010.

For further information:

Sculpture Network

Anish Kapoor solo exhibition in Bilbao

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

L'any passat, del setembre al December, la Royal Academy of Arts de London va oferir la mostra Anish Kapoor.

Enguany serà al Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, del 16 de March al 12 d'October.

L'exposició, que ha estat organitzada en col·laboració amb l'artist, mostrarà peces que n'exemplifiquen la trajectòria artística. Més de cinquanta peces van ser exposades per primera vegada a la retrospectiva de London que va tenir lloc a finals de l'any passat.

A retrospective exhibition of Thomas Schütte's work, in Madrid

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is to host the most important retrospective exhibition ever organised in Spain of work by the German artist Thomas Schütte.

The exhibition brings together nearly seventy-five works. They will be shown on the first floor of the Sabatini building and in other parts of the museum, including the garden and the cloister.

Lynne Cooke, curator of Retrospection and assistant director of the museum, has created a route that presents examples of Schütte's development as an artist and of the different techniques that he has used during his career. The exhibition includes water colours, etchings, photographs, installations and architectural models, as well as some of his most representative groups of sculptures (Women and Dogs).

The exhibition will open on 16 February and run until 17 May.

Henry Moore's graphic work, in Cuenca

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The exhibition at the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español in Cuenca, dedicated to Henry Moore (Castleford, Yorkshire, Great Britain 1898 – Perry Green, Hertfordshire, Great Britain, 1986) will be open until 21 February.

The exhibition is divided into three parts: Meditations on the Effigy, Elephant Skull and La poésie.

In all the works on show we find topics that Moore had already worked on in the field of sculpture, such as the reclining female nude, maternity and the study of animal anatomy.

Rauschenberg Assemblies, in Bilbao

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

El museu exposa Gluts, l'última sèrie d'escultures de Robert Rauschenberg (Texas, 1925 - Florida, 2008).

Rauschenberg, capdavanter del pop-art, va crear els assemblages de la sèrie Gluts (1986-1995) com a reacció a la decadència econòmica de Texas provocada pels excedents (en anglès, gluts) de petroli.

L'espectador hi trobarà obres creades a partir de senyals de circulació, tubs d'escapament o persianes. Exemples, doncs, del collage transportat a les tres dimensions.

L'exposició Robert Rauschenberg: Gluts es podrà visitar al Guggenheim de Bilbao del 13 de February al 12 de setembre.

Two almost simultaneous exhibitions of Henry Moore's work

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Tate Britain (London) is holding a Henry Moore season from 24 February to 6 August. At the Henry Moore exhibition over 150 stone sculptures, wooden carvings, bronzes and drawings will be on display.

The exhibition will include pieces dealing with themes that shaped Moore's art, such as the reclining figure, maternity, abstract composition and drawings of London during the war.

The other exhibition, Henry Moore Deluxe: Books, Prints & Portfolios, can be visited from 30 March to 30 August. It will be held in the Sheep Field Barn Gallery, at the Henry Moore Perry Green (Hertfordshire).

From the seventies onward, printing acquired greater importance in the art of Henry Moore. His numerous joint projects with specialists in printing and with publishing companies can be clearly seen in the 719 copies that appear in the catalogue raisonné of the artist's work. The exhibition will lay emphasis on the de luxe editions that have been produced over the last few decades.

David Mitchinson, who worked with Moore from the end of the 1960s until the artist's death, is the curator.

To mark the occasion of the Perry Green exhibition, the book Henry Moore: Prints and Portfolios (Patrick Cramer, Geneva, 2010), produced with the support of David Mitchinson, the curator, will be published.

Jaume Plensa season in Dallas

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The collection Genus and Species presents nine new large-scale sculptures chosen by the artist and the curator, Jed Morse.

The exhibition will be divided into two different areas, one indoor and the other outdoor.

Genus and Species will open its doors to the public on 30 January 2010 and can be visited until 2 May.

The Nasher Sculpture Center already has one work by Plensa in its permanent collection: Song of Songs III & IV, a large-scale piece in glass and stainless steel.

One of Plensa's best known large-scale works is Crown Fountain, which stands in the Millennium Park in Chicago.

For further information:

News on the NSC website

Fact sheet for Song of Songs III & IV (NSC)

Jaume Plensa website (in English)

Art in the Street returns with Rodin

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In 2007 "la Caixa"'s Obra Social launched Art in the Street,a series of exhibitions in the public highway. The programme started with Igor Mitoraj and continued with Manolo Valdés. Now it is back, devoting part of the Rambla de Catalunya in Barcelona to the sculptor Auguste Rodin (Paris, 1840 – Meudon, 1917).

The exhibition Art in the Street. Auguste Rodin in Barcelona,curated by Hélène Marraud, of the Musée Rodin, Paris, brings together seven outstanding sculptures: the artist's best known sculpture, The Thinker, and six studies for the six leading townsmen featured in The Burghers of Calais.

Rodin was a forerunner and defender of art at street level, and of the suppression of the pedestal, so this exhibition complies fully with the wishes of the artist.

The seven pieces will be on display between Consell de Cent and Diputació streets until 6 February 2010.

The Museu de Montserrat exhibits artwork from its collection

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Tristán Barberà is curator of Avant garde and contemporary art. Graphic Work of the Abbey of Montserrat, an exhibition consisting of five sections.

The historic avant garde section includes pieces by Eduardo Chillida, Joan Miró, Picasso, Antoni Tàpies, Max Ernst and Natàlia Gontxarova, among others.

The section on modern figurative art includes work by Joan Barbarà, Otto Cavalcanti, Modest Cuixart, Josep Hurtuna, Josep Pla i Narbona, Amèlia Riera, Josep M. Subirachs and Manuel Viusà. The works by Subirachs on display are an etching and aquatint engraving (Foix, 1986) and six lithographs (Four stripes 1976, Heart of Catalonia 1977, Salvador Espriu II 1980, Philosophy 1984, Gaudí 1986 and Llull 1994).

Abstract art is exemplified by the work of artists who include Sergi Aguilar, Rafael Canogar, Joaquim Chancho, Jaume Genovart, Josep Guinovart, Joan Hernández Pijuan, Niebla, Albert Ràfols Casamada and Joan Josep Tharrats.

The fourth section features the generation of the 70s and 80s. It includes work by Antonio Alegre Cremades, Eduard Arranz Bravo, Amado Bellés Roig, Narcís Comadira, Alfonso Costa, Ana Lentsch, Robert Llimós, Naoko Nakamoto, Damià Roure and Joan Pere Viladecans.

Lastly, the fifth section of the exhibition is devoted to the generation of the 80s and 90s. The artists whose work is displayed include Frederic Amat, Ramiro Fernández Saus, Rafa Forteza, Javier Mariscal, Víctor Mira, Perejaume, Agustí Puig and Luis Miguel Valdés.

Avant garde and contemporary art was inaugurated on 10 December will be open until 30 May 2010.

For further information:

Information for visitors to the Museu de Montserrat

Profile of the Museu de Montserrat on Facebook

The website of the Museu is currently unavailable.

Mass/Transparency, by Alexandre Ketele

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Capa Esculturas' Brussels gallery is exhibiting Alexandre Ketele's latest work.

Mass/Openness brings together the artists's latest work in glass and cast iron. Most of the pieces can be seen on the Capa Esculturas website.

During his career as an artist, Ketele has used techniques and materials as varied as glass, copper, cast iron, stone and paper.

The exhibition will be open until 10 January 2010.

For further information:

Capa Esculturas news.

The artistic revival of the fifties

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The Museo Oteiza presents The shadow of Oteiza in Spanish art in the fifties, an exhibition that brings together Jorge Oteiza's art and that of other artists whose work also contributed to the artistic revival of the period.

The exhibition contains 48 works by different artists who shaped the art of the fifties. Pieces by Àngel Ferrant, Eduardo Chillida, Andreu Alfaro, Manolo Millares, Leandre Cristòfol and various other artists can be seen alongside the works of the Basque sculptor.

The exhibition can be seen until 15 February 2010 at the Museo Oteiza (Navarre), and from 26 March to 27 June, at the Sala Patio de la Infanta (Zaragoza).

To mark the occasion, a study by Alfonso de la Torre, bearing the same title as the exhibition, has been published, dealing with Jorge Oteiza's work during the period on which the exhibition focuses. It includes two appendices containing documents, among which are 11 original texts by other artists, as well as twenty previously unpublished letters written by or to Oteiza himself.

For further information:

The exhibition at the Museo Oteiza

Bibliography

The Museo Pablo Gargallo reopens

Tue, 24 Notv 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The Museo Pablo Gargallo opened to the public again just over a month ago.

The rebuilding work, which has taken two years, has increased the museum's area by 40%. The Palacio de Argillo contains almost all of the permanent collection, while the Torrenueva building houses halls for temporary exhibitions, educational activities, audiovisual presentations and the document collection. The temporary exhibition hall consists of three sections, divided between basement levels -1 and -2.

The sculptor's daughter, Pierrette Gargallo de Anguera, has donated three works to the museum (the plaster model and a bronze casting of Voluptuousness, and Self-portrait, also in bronze) and the rights to cast a bronze copy of At the kneading trough and another of The grape picker.. The first four works have already been added to the permanent collection but, because of its size, The grape picker will be installed in the street, near the museum, when the casting process has been completed.

For further information:

Information about the Museo Pablo Gargallo

Bronzes from royal collections, in the Spanish capital

Tue, 17 Notv 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The exhibition Bronze splendour. Royal collections is an opportunity for all those interested to get to know the bronze sculpture in the Spanish royal collections.

The exhibition's curators, Rosario Coppel and María Jesús Herrero Sanz, have designed a chronological route, starting with the Habsburg dynasty and illustrating the taste of each reign.

Nearly 130 pieces have been brought together, most of which belonged to royal collections of bronze sculpture.

Visitors will not only be able to see bronzes, but will also will find engravings, books and paintings that help them to gain an overall understanding of the styles of each historical period.

The exhibition can be visited at the Palacio Real in Madrid from November 13 to January 24 next year.

The sculptor Nacho Criado wins the National Award for Plastic Arts

Tue, 17 Notv 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The sculptor Nacho Criado (Jaén, 1943) has won this year's National Award for Plastic Arts.

The Ministry of Culture has awarded him the prize for "his crucial role in pushing back the frontiers of artistic production, for the creation of an extensive poetical universe and for his original contribution to aesthetic thought".

After having studied Architecture in Madrid and Sociology in Barcelona, Criado turned to sculpture. In the mid-sixties he became interested in formal reductionism and the behaviour of material, concerns which led him towards minimalism. Later, when he became interested in land art, he used the landscape as an artistic resource.

There are many sites where his work can be seen. They include the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea (Santiago de Compostela), La Caixa's Col·lecció Testimoni (Barcelona) and the Patio Herreriano (Valladolid).

For further information:

Nacho Criado's website

One-man show by Urs Fischer in New York

Tue, 03 Notv 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Urs Fischer (Zurich, Switzerland, 1973) és conegut per l'interès que demostra a trobar noves solucions plàstiques, recerca que l'ha dut a treballar amb materials tan diversos com la cera fosa o, fins i tot, amb verdures en estat de putrefacció.

Fischer, que actualment viu a la ciutat on té lloc la mostra, ha vist exposats els seus treballs en nombrosos museus europeus, entre els quals hi ha la Kunsthaus Zürich, el Museumm Boijmans Van Beuningen de Rotterdam i el Pompidou Center de Paris. L'any 2006, a més a més, va participar a la Biennal Whitney.

Del 28 d'October del 2009 al 7 de February del 2010 es pot visitar Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty, la primera exposició que ocupa tots els espais del New Museumm de New York.

La mostra, comissariada per Massimiliano Gioni, recull els fruits de quatre anys de feina: escultures d'aluminum, objectes que semblen mig fosos o caixes d'steel cromat serigrafiat. Segons el comissari, no és ni una exposició a la manera tradicional ni una retrospectiva, si no que es tracta d'una "introspectiva" per mitjà de la qual el visitant podrà entrar en el món artístic de Fischer.

Per a l'ocasió, s'ha publicat un catàleg, editat pel New Museumm i per JRP Ringier, titulat Urs Fischer: Shovel in a Hole. La publicació inclou textos de Massimiliano Gioni, de Bice Curiger (de la Kunsthaus Zürich) i de Jessica Morgan (de la Tate Modern, de London).

Per saber-ne més:

New Museumm de NY

L'exposició al web del New Museumm de NY

Full informatiu

Details bibliogràfica del catàleg:

Wild Thing

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Wild Thing is a selection of 90 works. It contains sculptures, drawings and pastels by three artists who revolutionised British art in the early twentieth century: Jacob Epstein (New York 1880 - London 1959), Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (Brighton 1891 - Uxbridge 1915) and Eric Gill (St Jean de Braye 1882 - Neuville St Vaast 1940).

This is the first time that works by Epstein, Gaudier-Brzeska and Gill have been brought together in a single exhibition. Some of the pieces had not been previously shown in London. Richard Cork and Adrian Locke are the curators of the show.

It will open at the Royal Academy of Arts on 24 October and can be visited until January 24 next year.

For further information:

Royal Academy of Arts

The art of Aristides Maillol, at the Pedrera

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

On October 20 Caixa Catalunya's Sala Exposicions La Pedrera will open its doors for a new exhibition: Maillol.

In the exhibition, the visitor will be able to discover the different techniques that Maillol (Banyuls de la Marenda 1861 - 1944) cultivated, including sculpture, painting, drawing, engraving, tapestry and ceramics.

In conjunction with the exhibition, which will last until 31 January next year, a series of parallel activities have been organized: dialogues and round tables, a recital of piano music by the Languedoc composer Déodat de Séverac and activities for the blind. To attend these events, please book in advance by phoning 902 400 973, as the number of places is limited.

For further information:

Lyrical constructions, Man Ray / Leandre Cristòfol. The object and the dada spirit

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Last year was the centenary of the birth of Leandre Cristòfol (Os de Balaguer 1908 – Lleida 1998). One of the activities organised by the Lleida City Council in honour of the sculptor was Lyrical Constructions, Man Ray / Leandre Cristòfol. The travelling exhibition The object and the dada spirit can now be visited in Hospitalet de Llobregat.

The Centre d'Art Tecla Sala is hosting the exhibition from 15 October to 13 December this year. It was first opened at the Museu d'Art Jaume Morera in Lleida some months ago.

The commissioner, Pilar Parcerisas, has brought together works by Man Ray (Philadelphia 1890 – Paris 1976) and Leandre Cristòfol to show the poetic affinities between the work of the two artists. Both the American and the Catalan abandoned traditional art to join the dada movement. For this reason, and to bring out the international character of Cristòfol's work, visitors can now see 29 photographs of Ray's works and 18 sculptures by the artist from Lleida in a single exhibition room.

The next venues planned for the exhibition are Cerdanyola del Vallès, Figueres, Tortosa, Mollet del Vallès, Terrassa and Manresa.

For further information:

Centre d'Art Tecla Sala (l'Hospitalet de Llobregat)

VIII International Sculpture Symposium

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The VIII International Sculpture Symposium will be held in Vaduz, Liechtenstein from 15 to 18 October.

The symposium is organised by the European Sculpture Network in cooperation with the Kunstmuseum, Hochschule Liechtenstein, Zeppelin University and the Foundation Sittertal.

The research work focuses on the relationship between architecture and sculpture, two art forms that come together more and more every day.

It seems evident that both in architecture and sculpture, the artist designs and shapes the space, and that these disciplines are differentiated by the methods that are used and by the objectives that are sought.

However, more and more sculptors are designing bridges and houses, and more architects are adding their own sculptures to their projects.

With the aim of delving deeper into these ideas, the symposium will bring together architects, sculptors and engineers, who will offer discussions and conferences.

For further information:

VIII International Sculpture Symposium (PDF in English)

European Sculpture Network

Current Spanish sculpture, in Segovia

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

From 30 September to 21 February 2010, Segovia is exhibiting the work of 14 Spanish artists under the title The Kingdom of Silence. Current Spanish Sculpture, between the Object and its Absence, 2000-2010.

Francisco Calvo Serraller, commissioner of the exhibition, assures that since the middle of the 1980s, Spanish art has been in harmony with international art trends.

From this idea and with the aim of showing the state of current Spanish sculpture, Calvo Serraller has chosen artists of several generations and styles, which range from Antonio López to Naia del Castillo, chronologically.

The selection does not want to be an exact representation of the current situation, but rather wants to clearly show the confluence between sculptural language and that of other arts. Thus, the use of photography and video offers results that are now as common as installations or performances. Also, the fine line that separates sculpture and architecture gets finer every day, which explains why the VIII International Sculpture Symposium being held this year in Liechtenstein is dedicated to the "ambivalent relationship" between these two arts.

The selected sculptors are: Antonio López García, Juan Navarro Baldeweg, Susana Solano, Eva Lootz, Cristina Iglesias, Miquel Barceló, Elena del Rivero, Francisco Leiro, Pello Irazu, Blanca Muñoz, Jaume Plensa, Sergio Prego, Javier Pérez and Naia del Castillo.

For further information:

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente

VIII International Sculpture Symposium (PDF in English)

José Luis Pascual's sculpture, in Palafrugell

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The Espai d'Escultura Contemporània Can Mario of the Fundació Vila Casas is hosting the José Luis Pascual exhibition.

From 26 September to 30 May 2010, 45 pieces made of iron will be on display, which Pascual created between years 1989 and 2006.

The artist, who studied architecture, began his sculpting career in the mid-1980s, first using cardboard and later, iron.

The subject matter of his works, especially from the late 1970s onwards, has been linked to the circumstances that surround him, taking on a strong social commitment. For this reason, the pieces are often full of irony and, sometimes, satire.

For further information:

Espai d'Escultura Contemporània Can Mario (Fundació Vila Casas)

Manolo Hugué and his friends

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

From 1 October to 14 November, the gallery Artur Ramon Art of Barcelona presents the retrospective exhibition Manolo Hugué and his friends.

The exhibition is divided into two spaces. In the first one, the visitor will find a selection of fifteen drawings and fifteen sculptures, both bronze and terracotta, by Manolo Hugué (Barcelona 1872 - Caldes of Montbui 1945). They feature themes that are very representative of his career, such as women and the earth, motherhood, bullfighting and portraits. These works were created during his stays in Ceret and Caldes of Montbui. Of special note are the portraits in terracotta of the North American painter Frank Burty Haviland (1912) and of the lawyer and poet from El Roselló Pierre Camo (1913), which have been on display in the same room since the spring of 2007.

The annexe space features works by Manolo's friends, those he knew during the turn-of-the-century Barcelona of the Llotja and Els Quatre Gats, as well as those he knew in Paris, amongst whom Picasso is particularly noteworthy. Also represented are Maillol, Josep Granyer, Xavier Noqués, Joaquim Sunyer, Josep de Togores, Joaquim Torres-Garcia, Ricard Canals and Ramon Pichot..

In the words of Artur Ramon i Navarro, Manolo was a man with a deep appreciation for friendship, practicing it unconditionally, and it made an impression on anyone who knew him.

For further information:

Artur Ramon i Navarro

Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

From 26 September to 11 December of this year, the Royal Academy of Arts in London is hosting a retrospective of the Indian artist.

The exhibition presents works from his entire artistic career, more than fifty that have never been placed on display for the public.

One of the most attractive pieces is Shooting into the Corner, which features a cannon that shoots out red wax projectiles. The artefacts, when they collide against the wall and floor, create a mass that transforms itself with every cannon shot. The Work exemplifies the series of sculptures that are self-generated, a set that predominates in the exhibition.

The retrospective also includes a group of new pieces made from pigment, reflective sculptures of stainless steel and, also, the monumental work Tall Tree and the Eye, set up in the Annenberg Courtyard..

For further information:

The Royal Academy of Arts

Retrospective of Tom Carr, in Tarragona

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

From 9 September to 29 November of this year, the Sala d'Exposicions Caixa Tarragona is hosting the Reverberatio. Works by Tom Carr 1974-2009 exhibition.

Fina Duran has commissioned the first retrospective dedicated to the work of sculptor and visual artist Tom Carr.

The selection presents the career of this artist from Tarragona, exhibiting works from the first drawings he completed in the seaside neighbourhood of El Serallo to his latest work, created especially for the exhibition.

Tom Carr has created his artistic world from the circle, spiral, helix and pyramid, four geometric shapes that go hand in hand with the minimalism that characterises it.

After Tarragona, Reverberatio will be able to be seen in Sant Quirze del Vallès, where the artist currently resides.

For further information:

Sala d'Exposicions Caixa de Tarragona

Writings/Escritos, by Juan Muñoz

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Juan Muñoz died in 2001 at the early age of 48. He left behind sketches, sculptures, installations and other types of performances.

A little known facet of the artist is that of a writer, which he begun during his student years. His first publications appeared in the magazine Figura (Madrid), where he wrote brief reviews, especially on British sculpture.

Adrian Searle, art critic of The Guardian, is the editor of the book Writings/Escritos (bilingual in English and Spanish). It is a compendium of texts by the sculptor published in May of this year by Edicions de La Central (Barcelona). The curator, who collaborated with the artist on several projects, has written numerous essays on Muñoz and has organized exhibitions of his work all over the world.

Searle, in the introduction of Writings/Escritos, explains that at the beginning of his career, Muñoz was undecided about whether to be a curator, a critic, a sculptor or a writer. Although he never decided on a profession, he gave up writing to dedicate himself to sculpture. In spite of this, he was able to introduce his literary ambitions into his artistic creations.

Juan Muñoz incorporated text into many of his works. The radio pieces he made, which he called "sculptures for radio", are an example of this mixture of languages.

The book, Writings/Escritos, compiles already published texts together with previously unpublished works. An added value of the publication is the inclusion of original illustrations from Muñoz’s personal notebooks as well as sketches from his notebooks and personal archive.

For further information:

La Central

Adrian Searle and Lynne Cooke discuss Juan Muñoz (video)

The main access door of La Sagrada Família is put in place

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The main access bronze door that Josep M. Subirachs created for the Glory façade was inaugurated on the Open Day that the Expiatory Church of La Sagrada Família organises every year.

When Subirachs had already finished the works on the Passion façade, which required twenty years to be completed, the Temple Building Board commissioned him the works on the façade door facing Carrer Mallorca.

In collaboration with Bruno Gallart, Subirachs' assistant during the works on the Passion façade, the sculptor completed a group formed by two doors, five metres wide and five metres high. The Fundició Vilà (Valls), company which also took care of the doors of the Gospel according to St. Matthew and St. John, was commissioned the melting of the bronze. As usual, when the door when was placed, Subirachs applied bronze a first patina that will be transformed in time.

Josep M. Subirachs work history is comprised of many other previous forged bronze doors. The repeated letter is one of the most emblematic techniques he used in order to turn message into a work of art, paying thus a tribute to typology: art that has always drawn the artist attention.

The middle part of the main access doors is inscribed with the Lord's Prayer in Catalan with relief letters, and highlights the fragment 'Give us, o Lord, our daily bread' (Translation from original Catalan: 'el nostre pa de cada dia doneu-nos-el avui') in Catalan and 49 more languages (in alphabetic order: Albanian, Arabic, Aramaic, Aranese, Basque, Berber, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Coptic, Croat, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish, French, Gaelic, Galician, German, Greek, Guarani, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua , Rumanian, Russian, Sanskrit, Sardinian, Serb, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog , Tibetan, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, and Wolof).

The first doors sculpted by Subirachs (1959-1961) can be found in the Virgen del Camino Sanctuary (León). On that occasion, the young sculptor created four doors. However, it was on the main façade where he applied typography as an architectural technique for the first time. As background for the rest of the elements, ora pro nobis can be found inscribed thereon repeatedly. This sculptural technique is so powerful that he will take it up again later.

The rest of 'typographical monuments' can be found in La Sagrada Família. For the description of Christ's passion, Subirachs created single sculptures, sculptural groups and relief letters, and four bronze doors dedicated to Gethsemane's garden (1995), the Coronation (1997), the Gospel according to St. Matthew and the Gospel according to St. John (2000). The sculptor wanted all the façade work to be captured in the centre door (2000). For this reason, he decided to reproduce the text of the Gospel illustrated by means of the sculptures, with over 8,000 smelted bronze letters erected 'like two enormous open books', as Subirachs put it.

With the creation of the main access doors of the Expiatory Church of La Sagrada Família, Josep M. Subirachs becomes again a sculptor, a bronze smith and a typographer.

Apel·les Fenosa, in Caldes d'Estrac

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The exhibition Apel·les Fenosa. L'espiritualitat de la matèria, organised by the Fundació Palau in collaboration with the Fundació Apel·les Fenosa (El Vendrell), can be visited during August.

The trajectory through the work history of the artist is made up of about fifty sculptures, mostly bronze, and 73 drawings Fenosa created in order to illustrate the Lullian Llibre d'amic e amat.

Apel·les Fenosa was born in Barcelona in 1899 and worked at the workshop of the Noucentista sculptor Enric Casanovas.

In 1917, he founded with Joan Rebull, Josep Granyer and Josep Viladomat the group The Evolutionists.

In 1920, he moved to Toulouse and then settled in Paris, where he met the avant-garde.

Josep Miquel Garcia, curator of the exhibition and director of the Fundació Apel·les Fenosa, intended to focus on the relationship between the artist and Palau with a text the poet wrote on one of the illustrations for the Llibre d'amic e amat, published by the Ariel magazine in 1947. His relationship with Picasso is also represented with a plaster bust of Dora Maar created by both artists.

For further information:

Fundació Palau

Fundació Apel·les Fenosa

The magic of Juan Muñoz, in Madrid

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The exhibition Juan Muñoz. Retrospectiva will be held in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía until the end of August.

The exhibition, organised by the Tate Modern, was previously held in London (Tate Modern), Bilbao (Guggenheim Bilbao Museum), and Porto (Fundação Serralves) before arriving at Muñoz’s home city. The curator of the exhibition at the MNCARS is Lynne Cooke.

Made up of over a hundred works, some of which have never been exhibited until now, it is the most complete retrospective on the Spanish artist and extends throughout several rooms of the museum. Here his sculptures, drawings, sound works, radio segments and writings are exhibited.

Some of the pieces are located in different rooms of the museum (on the 1st and 3rd floor, as well as in the Sabatini Gardens), highlighting the theatricality of the artist’s work.

For this exhibition, the MNCARS and the publishing house Turner have published Permítaseme una imagen... Juan Muñoz, a catalogue in Spanish that collects essays by Sheena Wagstaff, Adrian Searle, Justo Navarro, Lynne Cooke, Alberto Iglesias, Jan Avgikos and Luc Sante, and over 160 pictures of sculptures, drawings, writings and other artistic works by Juan Muñoz.

For further information:

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS)

Bibliographical information of the catalogue (Permítaseme una imagen... Juan Muñoz)

Two exhibitions in the Fundació Vila Casas-Can Mario

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Can Mario – gallery of the Fundació Vila Casas in Palafrugell - holds two different exhibitions this summer.

The Espai d'Escultura Contemporània features 45 works selected for the Premi d’Escultura 2009 Palafrugell.

The temporary gallery holds the exhibition entitled I will never die: fifteen works, including sculptures and object-poems, created by Jordi Tolosa (Badalona, 1956) in the past two years.

Winner of the Premi d’Escultura 2009 Palafrugell

Alberto Peral is the winner of the 2009 edition with the work entitled Huevo a Dos Aguas.

For further information:

Fundació Vila Casas-Can Mario

Winning work of the Premi d’Escultura 2009 Palafrugell

Fascination for Greece

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The exhibition, which coincides with the centenary of the discovery of the sculpture of the god Aesculapius, focuses on the Catalan artists influenced by the Greek world.

The museographical route begins in Empúries and reviews the Catalan Neoclassicist, Modernist, Noucentista and Avantgarde art of last century.

The fascination for the Greek ideal is shown by plastic works by Fortuny, Torres-Garcia, Clarà, Casanovas, Sert, Campeny, Vallmitjana, Maillol, Blay, Fidel Aguilar, Gargallo, Dunyac, Borrell i Nicolau, Marès, Solanic, Fenosa, Rebull, Subirachs, Miró, Picasso and Dalí, among which there is a great variety of sculpture works.

Additionally, reference is made to other examples of the Catalan attraction to Greece: the foundation of the Col·lecció Bernat Metge by Cambó (in 1923), which translates the main works of the Greco-Latin culture, or the final translation of the Odyssey by Carles Riba (1948), with illustrations of E. C. Ricart.

For further information:

Museu d'Art de Girona

SUBIRACHS. Paintings: 2004 - 2009

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

July 11th - August 16th, 2009
Edifici Miramar
Sitges (Barcelona)

In summer 2004, after living almost sixteen years within the Sagrada Família temple, Subirachs went back to his workshop in the Carretera de la Arrabassada (Barcelona) and began a new period in his career mostly dedicated to painting, producing a series of works to which belong the 50 paintings that will be exhibited in the Edifici Miramar (Sitges).

His constant dedication to painting advises the use of acrylic paint for his need of working agilely, reducing thus drying time for paint layers. We observe his formal approach to mixing outstanding features of his other disciplines, such as sculpture, drawing or graphic work, gains strength, stamping therefore his own style on them.

The exhibition SUBIRACHS. Paintings: 2004 - 2009 shows a never-seen-before Subirachs, since most of the works selected had never been exhibited to the public.

For this exhibition, the Sitges town hall has published a catalogue with full colour reproductions, descriptions written by Lluïsa Sala i Tubert, a comprehensive chronology, and a basic bibliography.

Leaving Rodin behind?, in Madrid

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

125 works created by authors like Maillol, Juli González, Picasso, Archipenko, and Rodin have been brought together thanks to the collaboration of Fundación Mapfre, the Musée d’Orsay and the Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum – Zentrum Internationaler Skulptur.

The exhibition, organised by Catherine Chevillot, contains pieces created by authors of a later generation, showing how these adopted Rodin’s sculptural language, going from admiring it to forgetting it.

Leaving Rodin behind?, held in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris from March to May 2009, can be visited in the exhibition hall of the Fundación Mapfre (Paseo de Recoletos, 23).

For this exhibition, a catalogue reproducing those pieces forming part of the exhibition, along with descriptions written by Chevillot, Christoph Brockhaus and Ursel Berger, among others, has been published. This catalogue also includes a chronology and a bibliography for the sculpture at the beginning of the 20th century.

For further information:

Fundación MAPFRE

Musée de Orsay

Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum – Zentrum Internationaler Skulptur

Barcelona recovers one of the greatest Neoclassical sculptors

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

From 29 April to 27 September 2009 the Museu Frederic Marès de Barcelona presents the exhibition The Ideal Beauty. Antoni Solà (1780-1861).

Antoni Solà (1780-1861) was one of the most famous artists of his time. An art student in Rome since 1803, he established in this city definitively and became one of the only foreigners to hold the presidency of the Academy of San Luca: the main authority for disseminating Neoclassical aesthetics. He got involved actively in Rome’s main cultural affairs and defended imitation of the Greek artists and the search for the ideal beauty; a fact which is visible in his sculptures, his academic lectures, and the lessons he taught to his students.

Many of his monuments and works decorate palaces, churches and squares in Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Havana, Bologna, Mexico City... While he lay buried in the Eternal City, new artistic trends and the passing of time sent him into oblivion. A century and a half later, this is the first exhibition to do justice to one of the great sculptors of the Neoclassical tradition.

A series of conferences on the exhibition will be held.

For further information:

Museu Frederic Marès

Subirachs, sculptor and artist, in the Museo Archivo in Sant Andreu de Llavaneres

Wed, 06 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

With the aim of offering the opportunity to discover a virtually unknown facet of the Catalan artist, the exhibition brings together eighteen pictures painted between 2005 and 2008 together with five sculptures representative of the most important stages of the artistic trajectory of Subirachs: expressionism, abstraction, new figuration and metaphysics.

To mark the exhibition, the Museo Archivo in Sant Andreu de Llavaneres has published a catalogue with a text by the art historian Lluïsa Sala i Tubert titled L'imaginari pictòric de Subirachs, in which it states that, "in the last few years, the artist has transferred to painting all the formal and thematic qualities that are present in his sculptures". The catalogue, which also includes a chronology and an essential bibliography of the artist, includes all the works shown in the exhibition.

For further information:

Ajuntament de Sant Andreu de Llavaneres

Information leaflet

Manolo Valdés, in Cáceres

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

L’exposició consta de 17 escultures monumentals, la majoria de les quals foren creades expressament per l’ocasió.

La mostra és itinerant, com totes les que formen el cicle d’Art al Carrer. Ja ha estat a ciutats com Bilbao, Burgos, Zaragoza o Barcelona (el May i el June de l’any passat).

Els mesos de May i June d’enguany serà a la ciutat de Girona (Rambla de la Llibertat i carrer Notu).

Actualment es troba al Paseo de Cánovas de Càceres i hi és del 7 d’April al 17 de May.

Per saber-ne més:

Art al Carrer de l’Obra Social Fundació "la Caixa"

Cicle Manolo Valdés de l’Art al Carrer

Juli González, at the Reina Sofía

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The curator, Mercè Doñate, has created a discourse that shows the different registers of González's sculptures.

The exhibition, organized in collaboration with the MNAC and the MNCARS, is located in the Sabatini building of the Reina Sofía from 11th March to 1st June.

The exhibition had previously been on show at the MNAC from 27th October 2008 to 25th January 2009.

For further information:

Oublier Rodin?, in Paris

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The exhibition, which is on show in Paris from 10th March to 31st May, consists of 125 works by artists such as Maillol, Gargallo and Brancusi.

The pieces, created in Paris between 1905 and 1914, exemplify how the artists broke with the Rodin influence that had characterized them.

The exhibition Oublier Rodin?, the curator of which is Catherine Chevillot, has been organized by the Musée d'Orsay, la Réunion des Musées Nationaux and la Fundación Cultural Mapfre (FCM), with the collaboration of the Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum.
The exhibition will be in Madrid, at the FCM, from 23rd June to 4th October 2009.

For further information:

Musée d'Orsay

Fundación Cultural Mapfre

Sketches by sculptors, in Paris.

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The exhibition presents, in parallel, sketches and sculptures by artists such as Rodin, Maillol, Bourdelle, Carpeaux and Bernard.

The curator, Catherine Chevillot, is also in charge of the exhibition Oublier Rodin?. The visit to the two exhibitions creates a general vision of the work of the sculptor, which also includes sketches. In this case, the exhibition highlights the sketches carried out previous to the sculptures, be they studies of structure or studies of volume.

For further information:

Musée d’Orsay

Josep Maria Subirachs and Camilo José Cela, together in Sitges

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The Hotel Estela Barcelona in the Aiguadolç port in Sitges, which has a tradition of promoting the arts, is hosting an exhibition until November in its World Gallery of more than 50 works combining the plastic lithography of Joseph María Subirachs with the lithographic texts of Camilo José Cela. We recall that in 1993 Subirachs and Cela brought out a book, La sima de las penúltimas inocencias (The chasm of penultimate innocence), which they worked on together, Subirachs illustrating 74 handwritten texts by Cela. A single limited edition was issued, with 999 numbered copies, signed by the authors.
We have here the opportunity to observe the combination of the visual art of one of our greatest contemporary sculptors and the writing of the late winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. It is a dialogue between two creators to seek common ground and areas of discussion between their artistic disciplines, producing an enriching mix of ideas and inspiration.

The exhibition will be in the Hotel Estela Barcelona in Sitges until 30 November.

For more information:

Hotel Estela Barcelona

Camilo José Cela Foundation

The Subirachs 2008 exhibition opens the season at La GaLeRia in Sant Cugat

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The GaLeRia of Sant Cugat del Vallès starts the exhibition season opening its rooms to one of the most universal artists of our country. The Subirachs 2008 exhibition forms part of the celebrations of the tenth anniversary of La GaLeRia, and can be visited from October 3 until the beginning of November.

On show are 22 very recent paintings, painted in the last four years, as well as 14 drawings and 5 sculptures from different periods. In these creations we can see the richness of techniques used by Subirachs, the creative resources he uses in his works, and how his themes enrich each other. The existential reflection characteristic of his creations can now be found in his paintings, where the mental atmosphere that dominates his canvases leads us to make a reflection on Time, which is always a central figure.

Josep Maria Subirachs is a versatile artist who became known mainly as a sculptor, but who has also done printing, painting and designed medals, the façades of some prominent buildings, as well as cultivating many other artistic techniques, meaning that we can follow at all times the evolution of his work, which runs parallel to the evolution of his thinking and his humanistic concept of art.

The importance of this exhibition lies in the fact that the artist has been dedicated intensively to painting in recent years because, as explained by Judit Subirachs-Burgaya in 2007, «now that he is over eighty and has lost much of the physical strength required to perform sculpture, Subirachs has begun a phase in which he is predominantly dedicated to painting».

The exhibition catalogue opens with a text by Helena Batlle i Argimon, entitled "Subirachs, pintor", which explains to that in Subirachs' dedication in recent years to painting, he thought it better to «substitute oil paint with acrylics. The creator needs to work in a more agile way, minimising the waiting period for each layer to dry». And through the representation of volumetric bodies, by working tonal degradations, incorporating expressive strokes and textures of suport, with all of these «intended contrasts and nuances», Subirachs «leaves the unmistakable hallmark of his style» in the paintings.

The Subirachs 2008 exhibition, therefore, offers the opportunity, both to collectors and to the public interested in the artistic creation of Josep Maria Subirachs, to approach the materials and the most recent language of this artist from Barcelona.

To find out more:

La GaLeRia

Sitges erects a sculpture by Subirachs in Can Robert

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

FUERTES JÁVEGA, Aitana.- in El Periódico de Catalunya.-- Page. 28.-July 14 2008

Since 2003, when it launched its Sculpture Plan, Sitges Town Council has installed eight sculptures in the streets of the municipality . According to the Councillor for Culture, Gabi Serrano, "in four years about 100,000 euros has been spent on sculptures with the aim of filling the town with art and culture, although we have looked for partners so that allocation of spending would not be excessive".

The Mayor, Jordi Baijet, stated that "we are building up a heritage because the pieces have a value which goes beyond their location or the purchase price."

To find out more:

News from Vilanova Digital

Chanel Mobile Art has begun its pilgrimage towards Hong Kong

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

In this section of the agenda we previously mentioned the presence of Louis Vuitton in the Murakami retrospective exhibition at the MOCA in Los Angeles and the Brooklyn Museum; now the firm Chanel takes the Chanel Mobile Art project one step further with a traveling exhibition that is presented in space that was custom designed by the famous architect Zaha Hadid. The exhibition area has been specially designed so that it can be moved in its entirety.

The traveling exhibit began its journey, which was originally planned to last two years, in Hong Kong, where it remained until last April. The next stop was Tokyo, where it was kept until July 2008.

Then it is scheduled to travel to London, where it will be exhibited until June 2009 and from London to Moscow, where it will be on show until September of that year. The last city to host Chanel Mobile Art will be Paris, where it is expected to arrive between January and February of 2010.

The design proposal for the mobile museum was made by Karl Lagerfeld to Zaha Hadid in person during a conference organized by the art and design magazine, Wallpaper. Curiously, or not, the traveling exhibition has not had any great repercussions in the specialized art media, however it has met widespread acclaim amongst the fashion media.

The 20 artists invited to form part of the project participated in the 2007 Biennial Exhibition in Venice. These names included Subodh Gupta, who we have already referred to earlier in this chapter. Other participants include: Yoko Ono, David Levinthal, Loris Cecchini, Stephen Shore, Sylvie Fleury, Nobuyoshi Araki or Leandro Erlich.

The artists were asked to take their inspiration from one of the most emblematic Chanel handbags, the 2/55 padded white chain-strap bag which, it appears, was designed by Coco herself. She commented on a number of occasions: "I want to be a part of what is happening". And, this time, her company has managed to do just that. The structure designed by architect Zaha Hadid also appears to have been inspired by the handbag. An aerial view shows that the atrium skylights could easily represent the magnolia, so recurrently used in the designs of Chanel.

The exhibition curator, Fabrice Bousteau, was responsible for choosing the participating artists. Their works show varying degrees of relations with the designs of Chanel, from which they were supposed to take their inspiration. Perhaps the artist that most clearly shows her relationship with the Chanel 2/55 is the Korean artist Sur Lee Bul. Her installation shows a gigantic handbag with a built-in video.

With regard to the practical aspects of the exhibit, it should be noted that admission is free, but a fee is charged for the audio facilities available. A soundtrack has been created specifically for the occasion and spectators can listen to the sequence throughout their visit. A fee is charged to borrow the small iPod used for this purpose and thus the duration of the visit is limited to the soundtrack time.

We hope that the presence of Chanel Mobile Art in other cities will be considered. The union of the Guggenheim museum and Zaha's futurist pavilion would be a very interesting aesthetic experience.

The monumental sculptures "Día y Noche" (Day and Night) by Antonio López now installed in the Atocha train station in Madrid

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Since 2 July 2008 the sculptures Noche y Día (Night and Day), by Antonio López have been on show at Atocha station in Madrid. They are three metres high and weigh 2 tons. From the month of April until their arrival in Madrid, the sculptures have been at the entrance of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where a very popular retrospective of Antonio López's work has taken place. As if these two events were not enough for this 72-year-old artist's career, last June one of his paintings, Madrid desde las Torres Blancas (Madrid from the WhiteTowers), sold for 1.7 million euros, a figure that makes Antonio López the most highly valued living Spanish artist.

For the sculptures now installed in Atocha, the artist was inspired by the face of one of his granddaughters. Representing Day with open eyes and Night resting symbolises the passage of time for Antonio López . They have been installed about 50 metres apart in the arrivals area of the high speed train (AVE), facing each other. The artist himself has been in charge of directing the team of experts to determine the exact spot where they were to position the works.

Antonio López did not disguise his feelings during the installation process, when he observed the favourable reaction of those present: "I wasn't sure about the tone, the patina, but now that I see them here I am very happy", the artist said. With an emotional note in his voice he added: "Atocha is where I arrived when I came to Madrid in 1949, so it is very special to be able to place my sculptures here. It's a magnificent space... They're unpretentious, aren't they? They fill the space, but they do not interfere; they have a life near people, among people...".

These are the first sculptures by Antonio López to be installed in a public thoroughfare.

The BBC's London headquarters unveils a sculpture by Jaume Plensa

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

On June 17, 2008 the Secretary-general for the UN, Ban Ki-moon, inaugurated the sculpture Breathing installed in the extension to the BBC's main building in Portland Place, London. This sculpture has been installed for three years but for technical reasons it has not been possible to inaugurate it.

Breathing is a luminous inverted cone built in glass and steel. The project emerged in response to a competition organized by the BBC to decorate the roof of the extension. Plensa was very conscious, when designing his work, of the place where it was to be installed, near the aerial of the BBC and next to the bell tower of All Souls Church. A beam of light emerges from the interior of the piece which can be seen from as far as two kilometres away. It will be turned on every night to coincide with the broadcast of the ten o'clock news. The sculpture has a poem by the artist engraved on it.

In El Periódico Plensa comments: "In the beginning it was a purely aesthetic project but, when I finished it, the journalists asked me if I minded it being turned into a monument to their colleagues who had died in the course of their work. I thought it was a very nice idea, because it gave a very appropriate meaning to a piece in a public place. It meant that people had adopted it as theirs".

The sculpture has become a monument dedicated not only to journalists but also to technicians, translators and drivers of all nationalities who died while they were working. It is estimated that in the last 10 years an average of two war correspondents have died in the world every week. Among the most recent victims are two BBC reporters who died while they were working in Afghanistan and Somalia.

Plensa's project has also been another example of the partnership between sculptor and architect. Sir Richard MacCormac was the architect responsible for designing the new BBC building. The artist commented: "He put his whole team at my disposal. We developed all the technical aspects of the sculpture. It was a pleasure to work with him; he is a great architect".lt;br/>

The guest artist at Monumenta 2008 in Paris is the sculptor Richard Serra

Mon, 19 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

"Promenade" is the work especially created by Richard Serra to form part of the 12th edition of Monumenta. It will be on display in the Grand Palais in Paris until 15 June 2008.

The north American artist who designed the work bearing its location in mind has created five 17-metre tall steel rectangles that weigh 73 tons each. The group of sculptures creates the impression that it invades the 13,500 square meters in of the Grand Palais building, the space created to house the Paris Universal Expo of the year 1900.

As is the case for many other creators of monumental sculptures, Serra is very interested in the space in which his works will be installed, and the fact that the public will interact with them. In an interview granted to Steven Erlanger for the New York Times on the occasion of his participation in Monumenta, Serra stated that: "First one must be conscious of the scale. I felt overwhelmed by the space and did not know exactly what to do. However, I realized that I had to confront the space as a whole, I could not work with just the surface area. I had to work vertically". During that same interview, the artist also stated that he wants people to experience art in a specific time and place: "It is how you see the space and the piece. starting with the experience of walking through the space in which the art is placed -you become involved in the space and the experience is within you, no in the frame or on the wall".

Also on exhibit in the Tulleries in Paris until November 2008 is Serra's work "Clara-Clara". The history of this sculptural work is not devoid of unpleasant moments. In 1983 Serra created Clara-Clara on commission for the Pompidou Center's forum; the work was formed by two pieces in a C shape alluding to the name of the artist's wife, Clara. Both pieces were of monumental proportions and weighed 105 tons each. The weight was considered excessive for the location and the director of the Pompidou suggested that they be erected at the end of the Tulleries garden. The city of Paris bought the sculpture and located in Choisy park, where over time it has suffered severe aggressions as a result of the antisocial behavior of vagabonds, spray painters and unscrupulous carvers. After 10 years on display, Clara-Clara was put into storage. The result of this unpleasant experience is that Serra now does his best to avoid creating works for permanent exhibition. In any event, Clara-Clara can be visited until the end of the year.

Moreover, the New York Times informs that "Promenade" cost the artist expenses of 1 million dollars. Nobody knows what will happen in the future with "Promenade" or with the ill-fated Clara-Clara.

Richard Serra is very well known in our country due to his work "The Matter of Time" on permanent exhibition in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

The Mercury Fountain by Calder to be exhibited together with Picasso's Gernika

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The "Mercury Fountain" made by Calder for the 1937 Paris Expo was erected at the entrance of the Spanish Pavilion built by Sert and Lacasa, just in front of where Picasso's Gernika was hanging. This fountain is currently installed in the Miró Foundation in Barcelona. Between 1945 and 1946 Calder made a smaller version of the same fountain which to date has been on display at the Calder Foundation in New York.

The director of the Reina Sofía Center National Museum of Contemporary Art, Manuel-Borja Villel, has reached an agreement with the New York institution to install the fountain in Madrid and exhibit it as part of the recreation of the 1937 Pavilion of the Republic.

The original fountain, created in 1937, which as mentioned above is located in the Miró Foundation in Barcelona was donated by the artist himself, who was a great friend and admirer of Joan Miró. It was Sert who introduced Calder to the Almáden mines, a mercury producer that sustained the republican side all through the Civil War. On the foot of the fountain we can read the inscription: "Mercure espagnol d'Almaden". To build the fountain 5,000 kilos of liquid mercury were transported from the mines to Paris.

The Mercury Fountain on display at the Reina Sofía in Madrid, was created after the 2nd World War and its mercury does not come from the Almadén mines.

Calder's relationship with the Spanish culture was thanks to friends and acquaintances including Picasso, Juli González, Joan Miró, Gargallo and José de Creeft. The Cirque Calder traveled around Spain with its show of wire circus performances.

There is a "Cloud" in Terminal 5 of London's Heathrow Airport

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

For those of us who travelled in the 1970s and 80s, the sound of Cloud is a trip into the past. It is reminiscent of the pleasant sound of the information boards at the airports and train stations that displayed the arrivals, departures and oh-so-frequent delays.

Cloud is a sculpture commissioned by Artwise Curators and created by the Troika studio for British Airways. It is a piece measuring 5 metres in length whose surface is covered by 4,638 Flip-dots, the metal discs that flipped back and forth on the information boards of those times. These discs are computer-controlled and move according to a programme that creates different designs on the sculpture's surface with the discs' movement. This movement is very interesting due to the fact that the discs that comprise the sculpture's surface are a mirror on one side and black on the other. The noise emitted when the discs move can change in intensity and tone based on the programme that is used.

According to the creators of Cloud, they found their inspiration in the serenity one feels when seeing the clouds outside a plane; they also found it interesting to use the metal discs that are so characteristic of the information boards that were popular during the decades in which airplane trips started becoming possible for much of the population. "We wanted create a sort of living organism, a cloud that could be animated, exploring the aesthetic potential of the flip-dots".

The project took a total of 8 months, from the designing to the installation.

For more information:

Photographs and videos of Cloud at Heathrow