21 october, 1997 - 11 january, 1998 /

Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City

Pablo Picasso. Mujer en el Jardín, 1929-30. Sculpture. Museo Nacional Centro de arte Reina Sofía Collection, Madrid — Pablo Picasso. *Mujer en el Jardín*, 1929-30. Sculpture. Museo Nacional Centro de arte Reina Sofía Collection, Madrid

The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is collaborating with the Mexican Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes -as they did in 1996 for the ¿Buñuel! The Eye of the Century exhibition- to present at the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City a selection of paintings, sculptures and drawings by the major Spanish artists of the twentieth century. This exhibition is a reflection of Spanish avant-garde key historical figures as well as the most celebrated artists of the second half of the twentieth century. Also present in the exhibition are the creations of artists who have achieved great relevance in the current scene. In this way, the Mexican public is invited to construct a global vision of the Spanish art scene over the last hundred years through this exhibition divided into three chapters.

The first section of the exhibition entitled "Avant-garde until the Civil War" consists of seven major artists who from within and outside Spain helped lay the groundwork that would remain throughout successive generations: Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Óscar Domínguez, Julio González, Joan Miró, Benjamín Palencia and Francisco Bores. A set of fifty-three works among which stand out are the canvases: La máxima velocidad de la Madonna de Rafael (1954) and El enigma sin fin (1938) by Salvador Dalí; Retrato de Carmen (1935) by Francisco Bores; El gato y el canario (Las damas de Rathbon Place) (1947) by Óscar Domínguez; paintings by Julio González La recolección de las manzanas (1920-25) and Personaje abstracto tumbado (1936-39), as well as his sculptures Don Quijote (1929-30). Also worth mentioning: Molinos de Castilla (1933) by Benjamín Palencia, the paintings Pájaros en el espacio (1946) y Mujer (1972) by Joan Miró and composition studies for Guernica (1937) and Mujer en el jardín (1929-1930) by Pablo Picasso.

The second section "Post-war and new avant-garde" reviews the origins of Spanish abstraction through artists like Manolo Millares, Antonio Saura and Equipo 57. To this a review of Informalism by Tàpies is added, the personal version of Pop Art by Equipo Crónica and the visual realism of Antonio López. The pieces that stand out among those exhibited are those of artists such as Eduardo Chillida with El espíritu de los pájaros I (1952) and El peine del viento I (1952-53); Martín Chirino’s Mi patria es una roca (1987), Julio López’s Pareja de artesanos (1965) and Parte de su familia (1972) and Cabeza de apóstol (1953) by Jorge Oteiza.

To close the tour the "latest trends" section brings together a group of artists who excelled on the national art scene during the Eighties, such as Eva Lootz, Ferrán García Sevilla, Miguel Ángel Campano, Juan Navarro Baldeweg, Juan Ugalde, Pepe Espaliú, John Uslé, William Lledó, José Manuel Broto, Darío Urzay or Susana Solano among others. Present in the exhibition are works such as the sculpture Una. El prodigio (E.L.) (1993) by Txomin Badiola; the painting La gran cena española by Miquel Barceló, the installation Tres jaulas (1992) by Pepe Espaliú and the sculptures Sin título (Atenas I) (1991) by Cristina Iglesias, Red skin (1992) by Pello Irazu, Tou-Tou (1984) by Francisco Leiro and the sculpture La modelo y la musa (1984) by Andrés Nagel among others, all of them belonging to the Museo Reina Sofía collection.