Art Madrid'23 – 17 Sol LeWitt`s Wall Paintings in Botin Foundation Santander

 

It is the most ambitious exhibition in Spain dedicated to this unique artist, considered by many as the father of conceptual art: Sol LeWitt. Sol LeWitt. 17 Wall Drawings. 1970-2015 will be from July 18 to January 10, 2016 in the exhibition hall of the Foundation Botín in Santander.

 

There are 16 unpublished drawings in Spain and most have not been exhibited since its first execution for 20 years, the seventeenth already seen in Madrid for more than ten years ago and all of them together, we speak of the principle that became a pillar of Sol LeWitt's work: the idea and its supremacy within the creative process of a work. The LeWitt himself always claimed that "the idea is generating machine art".

 

 

Organized in collaboration with the Yale University Art Gallery and The Estate of Sol LeWitt, the exhibition offers visitors a unique perspective of formal and conceptual evolution of mural drawing in the artist's career, the variety and persity of his artistic practice, forms (geometric figures, simple shapes, connected shapes, lines, organic forms, ...)and techniques (colored pencil, graphite, chalk, acrylic, ink ...).

 

The sample includes Wall Drawing 821A (March 2007), Wall Drawing 7A (July 2015), Wall Drawing 118 (December 1971), Wall Drawing 413 (March 1984), Wall Drawing 237 (June 1974), Wall Drawing 614 (July 1989) , Wall Drawing 620E (October 1989), Wall Drawing 51 (June 1970), Wall Drawing 46 (May 1970), Wall Drawing 869C (1998), Wall Drawing 280 (January 1976), Wall Drawing 386 (January 1983), Wall Drawing 110 (September 1971), Wall Drawing 154 (April 1973); Wall Drawing 157 (April, 1973), Wall Drawing 208 (October-November 1973) and Wall Drawing 213 (September 1973). Moreover, Wall Drawing 7A will be held for the first time in the exhibition hall of the Botín Foundation.

 

Complementing the exhibit, the public can watch the Wall Drawing # 499 (Flat-topped pyramid with color ink washes superimposed truncated -Pyramid ink washes superimposed color, 1986), installed in the auditorium of the Botin Foundation in Santander since 1992 and will be reinstalled for the exhibition.

 

 

The murals have been recreated by selected artists by the Botín Foundation, 15 artists (twelve of them Cantabria) out of 459 applications have been lucky enough to follow the guidelines, annotations, notes and notes of the creative process that many consider parents of conceptual art. LeWitt gave great value and importance to the creative process that leads the artwork, so many of his works, still alive, were performed by others with their advice.

 

In 1967 LeWitt published "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art", a true manifesto of Conceptual Art in which he stated: "each and every one of the steps -garabatos, sketches, drawings, models of discarded work, studies, or conversations- reflections that occur during the execution of the work, are of interest. Sometimes, those that show the thought process of the artist, are even more interesting than the final product. " And with that guidance they have been made the wall paintings in Santander.

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.