April’s 7 art highlights are back, full of artistic novelties. Among exhibitions that look to the past, and others to the future, as the great gardens we need today and tomorrow for a better world.
Fondation Louis Vuitton intertwines two iconic artists, Warhol and Basquiat, as they mutually inspired each other to keep growing. Vitra Design Museum presents Garden Futures: Designing with Nature, the evolution of gardens, and the need for them to keep the planet alive. The Pedrera-Casa Milà opens its doors to the Catalan artist Jaume Plensa and his exhibition Poesia del Silenci while visitors enjoy his artistic career. Likewise, we delve into the creative worlds of Colombian artist Fernando Botero, and couturier Roberto Verino. The Israeli-Spanish artist, Rani Bruchstein plays with photographs to transfer the deepest feelings to the outside. And finally, Madrid celebrates the first International Festival of Performing Arts. Join us for a tour of the 7 art highlights of April.
Roberto Verino’s fashion and photography advance through time
It’s been 40 years since Roberto Verino was born as a brand, and to continue its commemoration, Madrid is hosting the exhibition Cuarentamasuno at the Fernán Gómez. Centro Cultural de la Villa. The exhibition is composed of photographs and audiovisuals that reflect Verino’s art on garments. Haute couture that works as closet background always. Throughout the tour there are images of great models like Christie Turlington or Helena Christensen, and photographers like Jacques Oliver or Eloy Lozano. In addition, students of Fine Arts, Graphic Design and Fashion, also intervene in the photographic archive on display. And it is that, thanks to technology, the image of fashion acquires new visions.
Throughout the exhibition you can enjoy photographs taken by Paco Navarro to Olatz in the early 90s.
As the designer mentions, the show is not just a retrospective of images, it is to be able to understand that timeless beauty that is never left aside despite the years. That the style created by Verino continues to evolve with the passage of time, and that the figure of the woman is one of his sources of inspiration. On March 30, a conference will be held at the Emilia Pardo Bazán Cultural Center, parallel to the exhibition that deals with the relationship between fashion and photography with the collaboration of experts in both sectors. The talk will start at 10.30h the 14.00h. .
When? March 17 to April 9, 2023.
Where? Plaza de Colón, 4, Madrid.
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm.
Fondation Louis Vuitton brings together Warhol and Basquiat, two references that influenced each other
Fondation Louis Vuittonopens its doors to the exhibition Basquiat x Warhol, à quatre mains.After the unique exhibition for Jean-Michel Basquiat, in 2018, this year, they bring together the connection between the two American artists. Between 1984 and 1985, Basquiat and Warhol created together around 160 paintings, some of them iconic in their careers. In this exhibition, visitors will tour more than 300 works and documents. Having in the show, 80 paintings signed jointly. Thus, they link styles that address issues such as the insertion of the African American community. .
From left to right: Michael Halsband, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat #143 New York, 10 July 1985. Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, Untitled (collaboration no. 23) / Quality, 1984-1985
The exhibition’s journey begins with cross portraits of themselves, Basquiat as seen by Warhol, and vice versa. Their first collaborations, initiated thanks to gallery owner Bruno Bischofberger, and which continued through the connection and complicity that existed between the two. Throughout the tour, visitors will be able to feel the strength and revolution they transmitted through their paintings. Great works such as, The Punching Bags or the gigantic 10-meter canvas, African Mask, are examples of the admiration they felt for each other. Warhol, a central figure in the art world and pop art. While Basquiat rejuvenated the ideals when it came to re-create. .
When? April 5 to August 28, 2023.
Where? 8, Av. de Mahatma Gandhi, Paris, France.
Hours: Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 12.00h to 19.00h. Wednesday from 12.00h to 21.00h. Saturday and Sunday from 11.00h to 20.00h. Tuesday closed.
Tickets: You can buy your ticket here
The art of photography to express deepest feelings
The Galería Azur in Madrid has welcomed Israeli-Spanish contemporary artist Rani Bruchstein with his photographic exhibition In Side Out. The exhibition, composed of 35 images, makes one reflect on aesthetic norms, discovering other visions and experimenting with the images captured. The snapshots tell different stories, such as gender identity or the figure of the body in relation to its environment. Intertwining surrealist portraits with urban landscapes.
From left to right: Cubism Emotions, Gaia and Minerva
The contextualization and the alteration of objects are some of Rani’s defining characteristics, allowing him to transmit to the viewers that behind each capture there is much more hidden. The artist draws on small influences from the American Man Ray, who enjoys experimentation and extracts the best from it. In fact, Rani Bruchstein stated that on many occasions during photography sessions he connects with the models to show from the inside out feelings. Something that is reflected in the title of the exhibition.
When? From 25 March to 14 April 2023.
Where? Calle Válgame Dios, 6, Madrid.
Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 12.00h to 19.00h.
Tickets: admission is free here.
Art in all its glory on the stage
Music, dance, theater and circus come together in Madrid with the first edition of the International Festival of Performing Arts. The Espacio Ibercaja Delicias hosts different fun, surprising and intelligent shows. Opening the edition on April 20 will be NUDA, a program of acrobatic theater featuring the Luzia director of Cirque Du Soleil. Inspired by Finzi Pasca’s novel of the same name, the story follows two sisters within a curious family. The art of ballet will flood the space on May 3 with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. A group formed only by men who claim the classic stereotypes of dance.
The NUDA show unites acrobatic art with storytelling. A flight that plays with light and shadow, always finding freedom.
STOMP will start on May 4, to the rhythm of beats through urban gadgets that allow vibrating with music and dance. And for the last days of the festival, the Chaplin name will thrill Madrid. Victoria Chaplin, daughter of the legendary Charles Chaplin, and her husband Jean Baptiste Thierree, will surprise the audience by combining traditional circus with innovative techniques. A show that will make you long for those past times with the classic circus of that time, but without forgetting all those novelties that exist today. In this way the festival is presented as a perfect time to enjoy the arts through fun, being able to disconnect from the daily hustle and bustle.
When? April 20 to June 4, 2023.
Where? Access via the Madrid Railway Museum, Cl. del Párroco Eusebio Cuenca, 63, Madrid.
Tickets: You can purchase the ticket here.
Jaume Plensa fills the Pedrera with music through lyrics
The Catalan artist Jaume Plensa chooses poetry as the main element in his new exhibition Jaume Plensa. Poesia del Silenci, installed at La Pedrera. The exhibition allows us to see the long road the artist has traveled from 1990 to the present, his own creative world and the letters as a key component in it. Upon entering the exhibition hall, visitors can see around 90 small pieces made in the 1990s. This shows a part of Plensa that perhaps has not been as explored, closer and more intimate to him..
In addition to the exhibition hall, the exhibition also takes visitors on a tour of the emblematic building. Eight large pieces are the ones shown between the azotea, the buhardilla, the two courtyards and in front of the entrance of La Pedrera. And through them, it links silence, dreaming, desire, family and music. An example of this is the large steel sculpture, Silent Music IV , which waits on the rooftop created through musical notes. Understanding the work as “the memory of a sound, of a music”, but which is not heard with the ears.
When? March 31 to July 23, 2023.
Where? Passeig de Gràcia, 92, Barcelona.
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday from 10.00h to 19.30h.
Tickets: You can purchase ticket here.
The particular world of Fernando Botero
The creative universe of Fernando Botero is presented by Fundación Bancaja through the exhibition Fernando Botero. Sensuality and melancholy. The Colombian artist is one of the most relevant artistic figures at international level, and the exhibition shows his evolution from his first works in the 1960s to the present day. During the tour you can see 45 works among paintings, drawings, watercolors and sculptures. All of them are divided into five sections; still life, female universe, nude, plein air and carnival, circus and dance. In addition, within them, Colombian culture is revealed through scenes of everyday life.
Botero plays with large and small body proportions of his portrayed characters. Creating, in this way, different planes; the volumes may be wrong in real life, but every detail fits perfectly within each painting. Throughout the tour, visitors can also enjoy the documentary El mundo rotundo de Fernando Botero, a screening on loan from RTVE, from its Imprescindibles program. Through it, you can reach a deeper level of the artist, a more intimate one that allows you to know his reflections and day by day to understand his creative processes.
When? From 10 March to 3 September 2023.
Where? Plaza de Tetuán, 23, Valencia.
Timetable: Tuesday to Sunday from 10.00h to 14.00h and from 16.30h to 20.30h.
Tickets: You can buy your ticket at the box office.
Maintaining a good future through nature
Finishing the 7 art highlights of April, nature is one of the symbols of life, and there is nothing like having it close to preserve a good future. From Vitra Design Museum presents Garden Futures: Designing with Nature, an exhibition questioning the extent of future gardens within the home, linking them with design, everyday life and landscaping. Throughout the exhibition, created by the Italian designers Farmafantasma, visitors walk through the symbolism of gardens chronologically. The exhibition begins with works by Georg Gerster, Hans Thoma, among others, reflecting the garden as a personal space, or an exchange of crops in colonial times. In the 19th century, the union between gardens and cities began, as well as the vindication of urban gardens as a social space.
From left to right: The construction of community gardens created in Kuala Lumpur in 2017, and Debre Ensesa in Ethiopia in 2018. The latter image reflects the great droughts the planet suffers from, and how nature is an essential element of healing
During the show, nine garden designers from recent years illustrate how diverse the union between nature, art and architecture can be. For example, Malaysian landscape designer Ng Sek San founded a community garden, while artist Zheng Guogu depicts an extensive garden uniting reality and virtualism. And at the end, the walkable textile meadow by Argentine artist Alexandra Kehayoglou reflects on the need to keep green life intact. In a time of climate crisis, where biodiversity is being threatened, awareness is needed to maintain our home.
When? From 25 March to 3 October 2023.
Where? Charles-Eames-Straße 2, Weil am Rhein, Germany
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm.
Tickets: You can buy your ticket here
Images provided by the brands mentioned above
