This exhibition is a good demonstration of the sheer breadth and complexity of Spanish art over the last century and reveals the extent to which it became a major focus of BBVA’s patronage. The result of this corporate activity is a group of works that gives a faithful account of artistic production in Spain from 1916 until the 1990s, thus providing an opportunity to explore the many paths, both abstract and figurative, that eventually led to the contemporary aesthetics of today.

Starting out from this concept, the walkthrough begins with a compilation of paintings, lithographs and drawings by avant-garde artists like María Blanchard, Joaquín Torres-García and Pablo Picasso, who obtained a first-hand insight into the cultural milieu of Paris during the opening decade of the century and produced their own personal interpretations of the ground-breaking ideas they discovered there. The next room takes a look at the surrealist movement, with a select number of graphic works by Salvador Dalí in dialogue with La lumière de l’ombre, the painting by Yves Tanguy and one of BBVA Collection’s most prized possessions. Surrealism is also the context within which one can inscribe the interesting group of works on paper by Joan Miró which capture the artist’s creative individuality.

The following room showcases the various movements that arose during the second half of the twentieth century, deeply influenced by the aftermath of the armed conflicts that had taken place both in Spain itself and worldwide. These new practitioners abandoned any attempt at recreating reality in order to focus on an inner existential exploration through the dematerialization of the image. Here one can view the distinct informalist paths taken, from the matter-based experimentation by the El Paso group and Antoni Tàpies to the transcendental scenes by Lucio Muñoz and Miquel Barceló. At the same time, other artists like Pablo Palazuelo, Andreu Alfaro and Soledad Sevilla took a more scientific and geometric approach, formulating a kind of art based on the principles of mathematics and geometry. The walkthrough continues with other forms of abstraction that emerged around the same time, ranging from more expressive and gestural versions, with a notable mention for José Guerrero and Esteban Vicente, to more lyrical variants, as exemplified by Fernando Zóbel, Gerardo Rueda and Gonzalo Chillida, whose redolent landscapes transport spectators to a metaphysical dimension.

The exhibition concludes with a return to figurative painting. On one hand, we have works by artists who had assimilated the teachings of Pop art, including a selection by Manolo Valdés, Eduardo Arroyo and Luis Gordillo. On the other, we also have a number of hyperrealist paintings in which the silent compositions seem to freeze time and propose a return to a mimetic representation of our surrounding environs from a placid and poetic vision.