Madrid (EFE).- The ‘la Caixa’ Foundation and the Pompidou Center review a century of artists’ fascination with nature with “Art and nature. A century of biomorphism”, an exhibition that combines renowned artists such as Picasso, Kandinsky, O’Keeffe and Giacometti, along with contemporary artists.
“Art and nature. A century of biomorphism” which was inaugurated in September in Barcelona, arrives this Monday in Madrid until June 9. The chronological and thematic tour is made up of more than 80 works of art.
Although artists have felt a fascination with nature throughout history, currently the threat of climate change and its consequences are the undisputed protagonists of that relationship.
“It is a hot topic, one that almost burned us,” said the curator of the exhibition, Angela Lampe. The exhibition was conceived during the pandemic and precisely for this reason, the final work is a 3D video by artist Jeremy Deller, which portrays a bustling flock of bats.
Presentation of the exhibition “Art and Nature”, which reflects concern for the environment through a dialogue between works by great artists. EFE/ Fernando Villar
The exhibition is an opportunity to appreciate the variety of the Pompidou collection in Madrid. “There are many masterpieces, but also other types of pieces,” explained Xavier Rei, director of the French museum, who believes that this tour can be an “illuminating and transcendent” journey about the relationship between man and nature.
From surrealism to land art
The exhibition combines a wide variety of formats such as sculpture, photography, film, design and architecture but above all, painting; to go through some of the closest stages of the relationship between artists and nature, such as the avant-garde, ‘land art’, or arte povera.
The exhibition starts around the 1920s and ends today. It is divided into four sections: ‘Metamorphosis’, ‘Mimicry’, ‘Creation’ and ‘Threat’.
In the first part of the exhibition, you can find works by Dalí, Picasso, O’Keffe, Giacometti, Max Ernst and Dubuffet, and a wide selection of works by Kandisnky, one of the artists best represented in the Pompidou collection.
You can see ‘Bleu de ciel’ (Sky blue) where the suspended figures in blue are reminiscent of small microscopic organisms or amoebas, and which appears accompanied by ‘Les vers marins’ (The marine worms), a scientific film, which establishes a clear analogy .
There are also numerous objects. The Patrick Jouin lamp inspired by the petals of a flower, together with the Ross Lovengrove table made with Ginkgo Biloba leaves, both in tune with one of Alexander Calder’s legendary mobiles.
New formats
With the arrival of new technologies in the art world – photography or video – new ways in which artists relate to nature also appear. This is the case with the photographs of Jean Painlevé or Raoul Hausmann, which deform the bodies of animals and plants.
Presentation of the exhibition “Art and Nature”, reflects concern for the environment through a dialogue between works by great artists. EFE/ Fernando Villar
Also in this line, two films by the artist Simone Forti from 1974 – one of the few women artists present in the exhibition – are shown, in one of them the artist records three caged bears and in another, she herself appears recreating the movements of animals.
Robert Smithson’s legendary film of his ephemeral work “Spiral Jetti”, in 1970, one of the first works of ‘Land Art’, gives way to a whole series of contemporary artists who work with new materials such as 3D printing, plastics, methacrylate, but also materials taken from nature.
Especially overwhelming is ‘Skin Poll (Gleen)’, a large tank, filled with a rosacea liquid, which denounces how the cosmetics industry interferes in our relationship with the skin.
Man has been at the center of Western art production for centuries but that has changed, Lampe explained: “Man is no longer at the center. That is something we wanted to capture in this exhibition.”
2024-02-19 14:06:28
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