As part of its programme of events to mark the museum’s new extension, the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao is organizing the exhibition Goenaga: Raíces (1971- 1976) with the goal of delving deeper into the production of the Basque artist Juan Luis Goenaga (San Sebastián, Guipúzcoa, 1950-Madrid, 2024), whose early output, often grouped together in series, is rooted in a close observation and interpretation of nature.
This is the case of Itxurain (1976), a work in the exhibition on loan from the BBVA Collection, in which the painter reflects his personal vision of the natural environment surrounding the caserío, the traditional Basque farmhouse, where he lived. Using a thick impastoed technique, it is an evident example of the groundwork for the expressionist visual language that he would continue to practice throughout his career.
Curated by Mikel Lertxundi, the museum conservator and expert in Goenaga’s work, the exhibition affords an overview of the works the artist created during the early-1970s, following his highly productive experiences in Barcelona and Paris which gave him insights into different painting, sculpting and printmaking techniques. Apart from the core selection of paintings and drawings, the exhibition also includes photographs documenting his interventions in nature, in consonance with

 Land art 

Land Art is part of the larger

 Conceptual Art 

Conceptual Art emerged as a movement in the 1960s in the United States, with Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) often regarded as a key forerunner or influence. Chief among the movement’s artists are Sol LeWitt (1928-2007), Joseph Kosuth (1945), Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) and Yoko Ono (1933). It came into being in opposition to formalism, to define a number of different practices in which the underlying idea and process behind the artwork were more important than its materialisation, meaning that conceptual artworks may take on the most varied guises.

movement which emerged in the 1960s. In Land Art artists generally intervene directly in the landscape, with their works taking the form of installations in open spaces made with both organic materials and found objects, readymades and sculptures. These interventions in the landscape were often temporary, with their natural degradation playing a part in the overall experiential process. Christo (1935-2020) and Jeanne-Claude (1935-2009), Nancy Holt (1938-2014) and Robert Smithson (1938-1973) are some of the most outstanding artists in this movement. Land Art developed in Spain in the 1970s, pioneered by Grup de Treball, José María Yturralde (1942), Perejaume (1957), Nacho Criado (1943-2010), Adolf Schlosser (1939-2004), Eva Lootz (1940) and Agustín Ibarrola (1930).