Madrid is Spain’s capital, and therefore the city has many different types of cultural events to offer. Whether it concerns concerts, performing arts or photographic, sculptural or other exhibitions, Madrid is the capital of Spanish culture.
Today, this article on the ShMadrid blog will focus on some of the exhibitions in the city that you can still enjoy in 2019.
Related article: Permanent Exhibitions At The Prado Museum
Index
Interesting exhibitions in the Spanish capital
Meninas Madrid Gallery
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Velázquez’s Las Meninas (or The Ladies-in-waiting) have come to Madrid’s streets. This exhibition includes more than 50 original 1.80 metre high art works, and they have been created by artists, actors and actresses, chefs, sportsmen and sportswomen.
The sculptures really invite you to take a photograph with them, and figures are designed by, for example, people like Rosana, Rafael Nadal, Dani Rovira, Ouka Leele, Samantha Vallejo-Nájera, María Pombo, Quique Dacosta and Minerva Piquero.
Las Meninas, the Infant Margarita’s maids of honour pictured in Velázquez’s famous painting, are reinvented once again, and they have been executed in different ways, but also with the latest trends in mind.
Each sculpture, for example, has a QR code that you can scan with your mobile device, and then you don’t just get an explanation of the art work’s concept, you also get a virtual menina on your screen. Artist Domingo Zapata will sometimes do live appearances at some of the art sculptures.
Más que humanas
Más que humanas (or More than human) is a collaboration between artists Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Tomás Saraceno, and they have come up with a series of works that explore well-known parallel universes.
The third phase of their cooperation is called Más que humanas, and it can be seen at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum until December 1.
Related article: Uncommon Museums of Madrid
The Masaveu Collection – 19th century Spanish paintings
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The new headquarters of the Spanish María Cristina Masaveu Peterson foundation is located in the district of Chamberí, and – close to the Paseo del Arte – it now hosts an exhibition that includes a selection of 117 art works from its large and varied collections of 19th century Spanish paintings (Goya, Madrazo, Fortuny).
Exhibition rooms 01-13 can be visited free of charge, and this includes a free audio guide.
The Masaveu Collection grew because of the interest of several generations within this outstanding family of businessmen, and it is one of the most important art collections in Spain due to quality and a large number of art works.
A foundation has continued the family Masaveu’s dedication to art and culture by promoting, collecting and researching art works since 2006.
The tour starts with works from Francisco de Goya and ends with modernism and Catalan postmodernism, and it shows the richness and variety of the paintings that have been collected. You can also see its evolution.
The most famous Spanish painters are included in the collection, with two great works by Francisco de Goya and Agustín Esteve, a neoclassical portrait by Zacarías González Velázquez and several paintings by Vicente López.
Madrid’s painters are also well-known for its portraits, as you can see in the three works of youth and early maturity of the great artist Federico de Madrazo.
Boldini and 19th century Spanish painting
You can visit the exhibition ‘Boldini and late 19th Century Spanish Painting. The spirit of an Age’ from 19 September 2019 to 12 January 2020 at Fundación MAPFRE Recoletos Exhibition Hall.
Boldini was one of the most important Italian portrait artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Besides Boldini’s works, the exhibition also includes works by other Spanish painters who lived and worked in Paris at that time. The exhibition establishes a dialogue between these paintings and the ones of the Italian master.
Will you be visiting any of these exhibitions in Madrid?
