Art Madrid'23 – Bosch the 5th centenary exhibition

 

 

 

500 years ago died one of the most enigmatic, brilliant and fascinating figures in the history of art, Jeronimus van Aeken, born in Hertogenbosch (Netherlands), in his life he was known by the nickname Bosch (El Bosco for Spanish ).

 

 

Now, the most important museum in Spain, El Prado Museum, offers the largest exhibition of genius on the occasion of the V centenary of his death, an ambitious exhibition curated by Pilar Silva, Head of Department of Spanish Painting (1100-1500) and Flemish Painting, including works from the Albertina Museum and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery in Washington, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Museale Polo Veneto Venice, or the Museum of Ancient Art of Lisbon. In total 65 works of art of which 25 have been attributed to Bosch, nine to his workshop, and the others to artists of the time.

 

 

 

 

 

Because of the complication of chronological order the life and work of the Dutch artist, the show is divided in 6 thematic sections: Childhood and Public Life of Christ, Saints, from Paradise to Hell, The Garden of Earthly Delights, The world and man: Pecados capital and secular works, and The Passion of the Christ. The sections cover from his first landscapes of his hometown and its beginnings with other Flemish painters of the time, until his influence on the art of the sixteenth century with the epilogue "After Bosch". An opportunity to enjoy exceptional pieces like the 'Triptych of the Temptations of San Antonio', the 'Adoration of the Magi', The Hay Wain and, of course, The Garden of Earthly Delights.

 

 

 

 

With "Bosch. The exhibition of the V centenary" we enjoy the essential themes that Bosch is in his paintings, mainly religious and allegorical. The latter full of symbolism and tradition of the time, of the virtues and vices of society around him.

 

 

 

 

The exhibition is also necessary from the perspective of the specialist as it helps to reveal numerous questions about its referrals, especially the analysis of their catalog and chronology work. In addition, the Prado Museum, a pioneer in the technical study painting Bosco, has reanalyzed their works making use of the latest developments. Visitors to the exhibition can see some of the results of this study with infrared reflectography and radiography of The Garden of Earthly Delights, allowing verify the creative process of the work, with the surprising changes that the artist made since he started the underlying drawing until concluded the pictorial surface.

 

In addition, the great program organized around the exhibition includes a sensory journey through the triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights".


 

In the year 2020 in the heart of Barcelona a wandering gallery was born, the same one that in February 2021 would debut at Art Madrid with an exhibition proposal focused on contemporary portraits; with this subject matter it would manage to create a powerful dialogue between artwork and audience and make the seal Inéditad remain in the history of the event that contained it.

Jean Carlos Puerto. Protección. Oil and copper leaf on wood. 60 x 48. 2021. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Since that first time and until today, the wandering gallery has managed to build projects on otherness, has repositioned in the spotlight the discourses on the LGTBIQ+ collective, has consolidated a group of artists who share its principles of resilience and empathy and the best thing is that it continues to bet from the professionalism and commitment to give voice to the difference.

Claudio Petit-Laurent.. El Joven de la Perla. Oil on wood. 30 x 30 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Inéditad Gallery, thanks to its founder Luis López, its collaborators and the infinite possibilities manifested in the works of the artists it represents, is a gallery that has demonstrated its capacity and courage to stimulate the sensibility of the public through art and seduce a generation that moves between the glass window and the analogical story. Inéditad is a nomadic gallery that has gathered around it a community of artists and has moved the context with exhibition projects that think about LGTBIQ+ art without prejudices.

Pepa Salas Vilar. Las marcas del arcoiris. Oil on canvas. 40 x 50 cm. 2022. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Pride and Prejudice was inaugurated. An exhibition that brings together the works of sixteen artists: Abel Carrillo, Alex Domènech, Carlos Enfedaque, Silvia Flechoso, Jamalajama, Daniel Jaén, Claudio Petit-Laurent, Jean Carlos Puerto, Fernando Romero, Pablo Rodríguez, Pepa Salas Vilar, Jack Smith, Pablo Sola, Bran Sólo, Elia Tomás and Utürüo. Painting, illustration, photography and digital art are the manifestations that bring into dialogue around fifty neatly threaded pieces, in a discursive line that discusses such a latent phenomenon as discrimination. To achieve this, the artists invited to the exhibition question themselves whether: Does discrimination exist within the LGTBIQ+ collective?

Pride and Prejudice Official Poster. Image courtesy of the gallery.

With approaches on and from the body, the proposal invites to celebrate diversity, proposes to question and self-question the prejudices and attitudes of society against the collective. Pride and Prejudice is a space for dialogue about the constructs imposed on us by society. It is also an oasis in which to deconstruct with tolerance and respect the subjectivities that sometimes prevent us from approaching the production of the participating artists, simply because "the beautiful" does not fit in an androgynous body. The subjugation of stereotypes are pressed with determination to find the beauty of diversity in other palpable facets of reality.

Pablo Sola. All men are dogs. Photography. 2014. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Throughout these three years Inéditad has stimulated the vindictive projection towards bad practices, has questioned estates around the LGTBIQ+ body and the most admirable thing, is that these capacities have resurfaced around the dialogue and the visual narrative of the stories that are told from the visual: Artworks that are people, art that is, per se, humanity. Overcome impositions and accept what is different in order to continue fighting against homophobia, biphobia, lesbophobia or transphobia and defend the equal rights that all the acronyms of the collective deserve in our community.

That's Pride and Prejudice: One creature, the happiest in the world. And maybe other projects and other people have said it - or felt it - before, but none so fairly.

Silvia Flechoso. Hola, soy maricón. Oil on canvas. 73 x 54 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

From June 8th until June 22nd you can visit Pride and Prejudice. Carrer de Palau núm. 4. Canal Gallery space. Barcelona.