SEP.24.2021                   JAN.09.2022

Judith Joy Ross

Madrid

SEP.24.2021                   JAN.09.2022

Morandi. Infinite Resonance

Madrid

SEP.30.2021                   JAN.16.2022

KBr Flama 21

Barcelona

SEP.30.2021                   JAN.16.2022

Paolo Gasparini

Field of Images

Barcelona

FEB.17.2022                   MAY.15.2022

Lee Friedlander

KBr Photography Center, Fundación MAPFRE (Barcelona)

In 1963, Lee Friedlander (Aberdeen, Washington, 1934) defined his photography as “the American social landscape”. He thus differentiated himself – together with other important artists of the time such as Garry Winogrand and Diane Arbus – from the documentary photographers of previous decades.

After the exhibitions New Documents, organized at the Museum of Modern Art, and Toward a Social Landscape, at George Eastman House, the influence that both Walker Evans and Robert Frank had on the three became clear. However, it should not be forgotten that, despite Friedlander’s definition of his own work, these new documentalists were primarily interested in knowing more about themselves and the visual facts of their environment than the social problems that concerned their predecessors.

FEB.17.2022                   MAY.15.2022

Adolf Mas

The Eyes of Barcelona

KBr Photography Center, Fundación MAPFRE (Barcelona)

The exhibition provides an overview of the work of Adolf Mas Ginestà (1860-1936), who was renowned for his important work in the field of heritage photography and was an essential benchmark in understanding the social transformation of Barcelona in the early twentieth century.

The 150 images in the exhibition taken by this key figure in twentieth century Catalan photography depict a Barcelona of contrasts, stratified between the shanty towns of the suburbs and the mansions of the Ensanche district, exploring the new political institutions, the modern schools, women’s training workshops, and artists’ studios. In his work, documentary photography merges with an aesthetic construction that echoes the output of other contemporary and later photographers such as Eugène Atget and Brassaï and the humanist photography movement.

With the collaboration of the Mas Archive of the Amatller Institute of Hispanic Art Foundation, this exhibition is part of the line of programming that Fundación MAPFRE has initiated in Barcelona in conjunction with Catalan institutions that have a rich photographic heritage which, on this occasion, takes us back to the extraordinary visual landscape and collective memory of Barcelona at the start of the twentieth century seen through the eyes of Adolf Mas.

FEB.11.2022                   MAY.08.2022

French Taste

Fundación MAPFRE Recoletos Exhibition Hall (Madrid)

The exhibition French Taste aims to repay an outstanding debt: that of the analysis of the presence of French art in Spain over a long period, representing the biggest reciprocal influence and interrelationship between the two countries: the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This long and disjointed timeline enables us to understand French taste as a phenomenon that can be classified as longue durée: in other words, a historical process that spans various contexts, defies chronological boundaries, and thus opens up a whole array of evocative vectors.

The project is presented in a cross-cutting way. It embraces aspects of the history of taste with elements from the history of collecting, combined with other collateral disciplines such as the study of diplomatic relations, the phenomena of cultural hybridization, and the construction of national identities. Moreover, from a strictly material point of view, the exhibition does not set boundaries but tries to consider, in this evolution, a certain taste that crosses creative territories as diverse as painting, sculpture, textiles, the sumptuary arts, objects of everyday use, and fashion.

FEB.09.2022                   MAY.08.2022

Jorge Ribalta

It’s All True. Fictions and documents.

Fundación MAPFRE Recoletos Exhibition Hall (Madrid)

This is the first truly comprehensive exhibition dedicated to Jorge Ribalta. One of the most outstanding features of his work is its serial rationale and large ensembles that would be difficult to translate into iconic or emblematic single images. In this respect, the exhibition is planned as a succession of ambiences with different degrees of what we might call ‘saturations’. The working title is inspired by Orson Welles’ famous unfinished documentary (It’s All True, 1941-1943), a piece that has generated considerable debate over the last few decades.

Exhibition produced in conjunction with the MUN (Museum of the University of Navarre).