The transformation of a museum through painting

Organic, equal and in constant transformation; sensitive to social changes and artistic trendslinked to the space they inhabit, with the canvases also interconnected with each other, like an exquisite corpse in which each one contains the next.

then it is thought becoming paintingthe new long-term temporary exhibition on the pictorial acquisitions of the last 10 years of the CAAC, which transforms, transforms – as happened with the historic building and the collection itself –, and in which some pieces will be replaced halfway through of the way, transforming the exhibition into a flow that questions the idea of the collection as a hermetic story, building it as a house with open doors.

The CAAC has been transforming throughout history. Founded as a Carthusian monastery at the end of the 14th century, Christopher Columbus prepared his second trip to the New World here and donated his personal library, eventually housing his tomb, which links the institution to colonial expansion in America. It has also been a porcelain factory or Royal Pavilion for Expo'92, to the point of containing one of the most important art collections in Spain, with more than 4,000 pieces.

The future is part of your idiosyncrasy and this is what the director and curator of the exhibition Juan Antonio Álvarez Reyes tells us: “The collections are complex and we have been reviewing our collections for twelve years. The only way to tackle something is to look at it from different perspectives. For example, we recovered women, who were not there, and also black artists as an act of reparation, since Seville was an epicenter of the slave trade.”

The idea of becoming could not be more appropriate to explain a historical moment in which economic crises are linked to the pandemic: “despite the economic cuts, we managed to increase fundraising thanks to important donations and deposits, like this one from Guillermo Pérez Villalta” , says Álvarez Reyes. In becoming painting we find a room dedicated to this exquisite draftsman with an incombustible imagination and other notable artists, mostly Andalusian, such as Curro González, Pilar Albarracín or Pepe Espaliú.

The important Sevillian pictorial tradition resonates throughout the CAAC collection. Tierra de Velázquez or Luis Gordillo, who, incidentally, was the first artist invited to be part of the collection, as stated in the letter of Victor P. Escolanothe first director of the museum, to the artist in August 1970, in which he wrote: “You are completely necessary for Seville (…) The MAC of Seville would be delighted to have your work”.

The entire CAAC collection resonates with the important Sevillian pictorial tradition

There are no Gordilhos in becoming paintingbut if a succession of great monumental pieces, which dialogue architecturally with this very special space, where the monks' cells were located seven centuries ago and which they observed in the silence of their contemplative life. Coincidentally, his motto was “the cross stands firm while the world turns.”

The world revolves in an eternal evolution and we never bathe in the same river twice. This is how the history of philosophy states it, from Parmenides for heraclitus with your panta king (everything flows nothing remains), even Nietzsche or Marx. The only thing that is permanent is change, also for art collections that are constantly revised and expanded, and why not, also for exhibitions.

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becoming painting It is presented in three sections. The first, metalinguistics, in which painting is thought of in the place of its origin: the artist’s studio. Alfonso Albacete opens the exhibition circuit with Nature thirteen (speculation), a 2013 canvas by an architect artist in which he traces, through a complex compositional game, the figure of the artist working in the studio in various planes and reflections. A self-portrait of himself and an earlier work titled In the study, painting from 1979 with which he begins his work representing his studio. They are followed by Manolo Quejido, Angel Alen any Christopher Quintero.

we arrived at renewal of abstract languages. The room with the wonderful canvases by Soledad Sevilla stands out, huge and involving, reminiscent of Monet's water lily room in its chromaticism and the precision of its brushstrokes in countless layers. It is also worth mentioning the exquisite work of Paz Pérez RamosRosa Brun and Monika Buch in a lyrical and surgical geometric decline with beautiful works.

Finally, we finish this pictorial walkthrough with the return to figurationwith a spectacular mural by Ana Barriga, entitled From animals to gods in which different heads are assembled like an urban vanitas of oil, spray and marker, or Salome del Campowhich questions in Prussian blue about female stereotypes through the landscape.

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