Art Madrid'23 – George Braque\'s retrospective at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

 

Alongside Picasso and Juan Gris formed the Holy Triad of Cubism and some people said that, even more than the painter of Málaga, George Braque was the real father of cubist art of the twentieth century. Now, on the 50th anniversary of his death, the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao has organized the most ambitious Braque's retrospective with loans from the Pompidou and some of the best collections in the world. 
He inherited the classical tradition of landscape and still life and led by the paths of abstraction and cubism as few artists have achieved. George Braque (Argenteuil Sur Seine, Paris 1882-1963), founder of the collage (then called "papier collés" pasted papers) that it liked so much to the Parisian avant-garde and in particular to his colleagues Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris, Braque represented the French painter by excellence with a long and fruitful production. He also encompassed many facets always from the research, analysis and study sedate (poetry, music, scenery, engraved ...) and walked away voluntarily from the image of the bohemians, drunken artists that was fashionable in time. 
 
Now his entire career, from his Fauve period, Cubism and his first encounter with Picasso in 1907, his later paintings, his series, all his work arrives to Bilbao through 250 works in the largest retrospective held in Spain on the French artist. 
Curated by Brigitte Leal, the exhibition "George Braque" pays tribute to one of the leading figures of the avant-garde of the early twentieth century, though, as Leal explained, not always was recognized: "The status of official artist of the Gaullisme undoubtedly clouded the eyes of the rebellious generation that followed him".
 
"Picasso is the best known name of the twentieth century," added the curator, "Braque was very much loner".
 

Until 21 September, at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, in addition, you can see the unpublished Braque's pottery coming from a private collection and that shows his fascination with classical style and Greek pottery. A must see is the unfinished painting "The weeder" that Braque left in his easel in 1963 and that ends the tour of the exhibition.

 

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.