Art and culture
Marc Chagall
Le Marchand de bestiaux [The cattle dealer], c. 1922-1923
© Marc Chagall / VEGAP, Madrid, 2024
© Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Philippe Migeat
FEB.02.2024 – MAY.05.2024, MAD
Chagall
A cry of freedom
For the first time the work of Marc Chagall (1887-1985) is presented from the perspective of the complex historical and biographical circumstances surrounding his life (the two World Wars, National Socialist persecution, exile…) and the stances adopted by the great Russian artist in the face of them, always inspired by an intense socio-political commitment of firm humanist conviction. The work of the great Russian artist is thus offered to us from a new perspective which highlights the extent to which his painting expresses a moving testimony to our times.
Christer Strömholm
Petit CHR, Pigalle, Paris, 1955
© Christer Strömholm Estate
FEB.02.2024 – MAY.05.2024, MAD
Christer Strömholm
Always moved by an unshakeable sensitivity to human suffering, which goes back to both his father’s early suicide and his participation in the Second World War, the Swedish photographer Christer Strömholm (1918-2002) was the author of an absolutely personal oeuvre, with an unmistakable aesthetic, which made a significant contribution to taking photography in a new direction.
This exhibition offers a wide-ranging retrospective that covers his entire career, from his early participation in the German collective “Fotoform” to the assemblages of found objects of his final period, including his many travels, his street photography and his portraits of artists.
Consuelo Kanaga
Tennessee, 1950
Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Wallace B. Putnam from the Estate of Consuelo Kanaga
© Brooklyn Museum
FEB.15.2024 – MAY.12.2024, BCN
Consuelo Kanaga
Catch the Spirit
Consuelo Kanaga: Catch the Spirit traces for the first time in Spain and Europe the entire career of this American photographer. Kanaga (1894-1978) is considered a fundamental figure in the history of contemporary photography, both for her contribution to the recognition of women in the field of photography and for the intensity with which her images confront the viewer with some of the great social issues of our time, especially the situation of the African-American population in the United States.
Antoni Rosal Grelon
Grupo de hombres alrededor de un pequeño estanque, décadas de 1910-1920
Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya (ANC), Fons Antoni Rosal Grelon, Sant Cugat del Vallès
FEB.15.2024 – MAY.12.2024, BCN
The domestic camera
Amateur photography in Catalonia (ca. 1880-1936)
For decades, amateur photography remained on the margins of the official history of photography, mainly because of its character as a mass activity and the shortcomings of many of its productions. For some time now, however, it has been the subject of attention for the way in which it manifests the social and cultural realities of its time. This exhibition traces its evolution in Catalonia from its beginnings around 1880 to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.
Bleda y Rosa
Mercado [Market]. Door of the Miletus market. Pergamon Museum, Berlin, 2021. Series Tipologies
© Bleda y Rosa, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2023
Bleda y Rosa
–
Dialectics. Tales of memory. Landscape.
Without a doubt, María Bleda (Castellón, 1969) and José María Rosa (Albacete, 1970) are one of the most unique artistic duos on the contemporary Spanish photographic scene. For three decades they have been exploring together, through rigorous and profound visual research, the dialectic between landscape and territory, between history and memory, between image and text.
Winners of the 2008 National Photography Prize, Bleda and Rosa have developed a language of their own, between the visual and the textual, as a means of reflecting on the different meanings and evocations that the human gaze conjures in contemplation of the landscape, as reflected in the series Campos de fútbol [Footbal pitches], Campos de batalla [Battlefields], Origen [Origin] and Prontuario [Compendium]. For the first time ever, this exhibition brings together their entire body of work, presented in a video installation where projections invite us to experience their art with other contemplative rhythms.
Judith Joy Ross
Untitled, Eurana Park, Weatherly, Pensilvania, 1982
© Judith Joy Ross, courtesy Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne
Judith Joy Ross
–
Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA.
Personal. Portraiture. Existencial.
Through her lens, the American photographer Judith Joy Ross explores the emotional world of those around her, seeking to answer existential questions. Influenced by Lewis Hine, August Sander and Diane Arbus, the photographer has become one of the most influential artists in the portrait genre, demonstrating that she is capable of capturing the present, past and future of the individuals who happen across her camera.
In the 1980s, after several trips to Europe, Ross acquired an 8 x 10 inch camera so that she could take portraits of “ordinary people” in public places, usually working class individuals, like herself, with whom she establishes a unique relationship. Through her photographs she does not seek to glorify or judge the subjects she portrays, simply to portray their most human side.
Carlos Pérez Siquier
Marbella, 1974
© Pérez Siquier, VEGAP, Madrid, 2023
Carlos Pérez Siquier
–
The edge of society. Culture shock. Color.
Carlos Pérez Siquier (1930-2021), a leading figure in the forging of photographic modernism and the professionalizing of this medium in Spain, enjoyed a prominent place on the Spanish scene, firstly for his neorealism work and later as a pioneer of color photography. This artistic endeavor earned him the National Photography Award in 2003.
His photographic series deal with the edge of society, the visual alterations triggered in the environment by the Franco-era developmentalism, and the cultural shock produced by the enormous influx of foreign tourists in Spain, up to his retreat, in the latter stages of his life, to more personal spheres. As a retrospective, this exhibition covers his most iconic series, produced between 1957 and 2018, with an important number of previously unpublished images and documentary contributions that enrich his discourse.
Paul Strand
Wall Street, New York, 1915
Fundación MAPFRE Collections
© Aperture Foundation Inc., Paul Strand Archive
Paul Strand. Direct beauty. Photographs from the Fundación MAPFRE Collections
–
Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris
Straight photography. Abstraction. Documentary.
Born in New York, Paul Strand (1890-1976) was a man ahead of his time, fusing socially committed photography with more modern trends that explored naturalness, laying the foundations of what would later be known as “straight photography”. This artistic process stemmed from his knowledge of contemporary art derived from his relationship with artists and theorists, such as Alfred Stieglitz, together with his intuition and his capacity for synthesis.
The exhibition features a wide selection (110 images) of Strand’s photographs from Fundación MAPFRE’s collection, focusing on the different themes explored by the artist: geometries, landscapes, portraits and countries. Therefore, it does not only include his landscapes and urban scenes, marked both by a search for abstraction and a documentary approach, but also a number of anonymous faces portrayed with great naturalness, offering us an intimate perspective.