20TH CENTURY MASTERPIECES FROM THE IVAM COLLECTIONS

October 7, 2005 – February 19, 2006

Today’s Spanish museums network is the result of a policy to decentralize the artistic world that began back in 1989, when the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern opened to the public. But if IVAM is one of our most important museums, it is not just because of being a pioneer but, more over, the reason is to be found within the large scope and uniqueness of its collections, among which the Julio González (1876 – 1942) bequest is one of the most impressive. Beyond the large amount of works gathered from such a crucial artist for modern sculpture, the acquirement of his works confirm the mission of IVAM’s Collection, this is, to place Spanish art right in the definition of modernity.

The IVAM’s Collection applies to a historical criterion, closely following the traditional approach to modern and contemporary art. It comes into sight, however, that among artists of renown, one may find less notorious names -and yet as significant- whose works widen the, apparently, classical perception of modernity. IVAM’s over 7.000 works perfectly highlight, with no exception, all 20th Century movements. At the same time, a selection like the one you are about to see, brings up a deeper crosswise view and, by those means innovative, of that modernity. Axed on Julio González, whose work sums up the lessons of Cubism, Surrealism and Constructivism, the Collection focus is on the origins of modern art, the debate on abstraction around 1930, Expressionism and Pop Art, not to forget the new tendencies of the 70’s.

This exhibition pretends to be a sample of the IVAM Collection of paintings and sculptures. All tendencies are interwoven in such a way that none is understood isolated, but essential to each other. If we look at sculpture, for instance, we begin with the most radical Dada and Constructivism experiments, in works by Naum Gabo (1890 – 1977), Lászlo Moholy-Nagy (1895 – 1946) or Kurt Schwitters (1887 – 1948) to end up with the crucial iron works by Julio González. From there, the trail reaches artists as different as the kinetic Alexander Calder (1898 – 1976) or the monumental Richard Serra (1939). Sculptures by Claes Oldenburg (1929) or Robert Rauschemberg (1925) are good examples of Pop Art, a cherish movement by IVAM. On painting, the track goes as far as James Rosenquist (1933), Richard Lindner (1901 – 1978) Alex Katz (1927), Valerio Adami (1935) or Eduardo Arroyo (1937) and even, indirectly, Joseph Cornell (1903 – 1972). While Surrealism is there through works by Oscar Domínguez (1906 – 1957) and André Masson (1896 – 1987), Abstration is exposed by very distinct positions: Geometricals with Georges Vantongerloo (1886 – 1965), Joaquín Torres-García (1874 – 1949), Luis Fernández (1900 – 1973) or Pablo Palazuelo (1916); American Expressionists with Ad Reinhardt (1913 – 1967) and Franz Kline (1910 – 1962) and still Europeans such as Pierre Soulages (1919) or Antonio Saura (1930) and finally the Informalists Jean Dubuffet (1901 – 1985) and Antoni Tàpies (1923). It would be impossible to go through all 41 artists in the exhibition but, in the end, it is worth to insist that this selection of works from IVAM proposes an alternative look through modernity that is just as precise as the traditional one but yet more rewarding