NATURALLY ARTIFICIAL

An interest in nature, its deterioration and conservation has become of primordial interest in our society in recent years. At the same time the renewed artistic language which we refer to as the second avant-garde, from the end of the 1960s, chose nature as one of its principal themes. As a result, a series of new artistic approaches have emerged which go further than mere imitative representation depicted through the conventional formulas of landscape and still nature.

To show how this new situation has been reflected in Spanish art, we have put together an exhibition of works by thirty-seven artists born between 1919 and 1974, that is to say from almost three generations, which constitutes a possible panorama of contemporary Spanish art. If, as well as raising awareness of Spain’s contemporary art, the exhibition awakens in the beholder a greater appreciation and respect for nature, its aim will have been fulfilled.

The exhibition begins chronologically with works by some of Spain’s first conceptual artists who created their work during the 1960s and 1970s (Francesc Abad, Nacho Criado, Àngels Ribé, Josefina Miralles), along with others such as César Manrique or Agustín Ibarrola who, with works which could not be transferred into the indoors, were precursors of a new sensitivity towards the natural environment. It ends with younger artists: Iraida Cano, Bárbara Fluxá and Lucia Loren who have installed works in the city which have been especially designed for this exhibition. However, chronology is not a satisfactory criterion for ordering the collection of paintings, installations, photographs and videos brought together in this exhibition.

The works are inspired by a series of problems and perceptions and it is interesting to view them in this light. We can organize them into various groups but not fixed compartments as many works could fit into more than one of the groups. Firstly, Interior Landscapes comprises works which reject the reduction of nature to a mere landscape and reflect its processes and vital energy, as in the work of Luis Canelo, Óscar Seco and Juan Carlos Savater. Then, in the wake of Romanticism, there are Intimate Landscapes which understand nature as a mood or personal experience, as in the case of Jorge Barbi, Miguel Ángel Blanco and Nacho Criado.

Another group, Nature and its Impossible Representation, is a preoccupation derived from the classic opposition between nature and art, now in crisis, but also from the inadequacy of strategies which falsify that which representations may naturally hold. This is expressed in the works by Perejuame, Manuel Sáiz, Pamen Pereira, Bleda and Rosa and Mateo Maté (or the attempt to capture it objectively by Juárez and Palmero). Presented Nature provides an alternative to the problem of representation and a reflection on the natural origins of beauty, as in the works of Adolfo Schlosser and Fernando Casás, for example.

Cultivated and Uncultured Nature alludes to the relationship between man and the environment, its flora and fauna, which constitutes the basis of all economic, scientific and cultural development. This may be seen in the works of Eva Lootz, Vicente Ameztoy, Demitrio Navaridas, José Eugenio Marchesi, Juan Ugalde, Federico Guzmán and Ángel Marcos. Lastly, Naturally Artificial reflects the idea given by its title; that we can no longer speak about nature but of its destruction – as shown in the photographs of Sergio Belinchón, Maider López and Xavier Ribas – or of its artificial survival, as in the works of Joan Fontcuberta and Pere Formiguera, Javier Vallhonrat, Santiago Martinez Peral and José Luis Tirado.