The Museum of Cinema lends 46 pieces for the Esperpento exhibition at the Reina Sofía Museum

Thursday, November 14, 2024

In the exhibition.Esperpento Popular art and aesthetic revolution that can be seen until next March 10 at the "Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía", 46 pieces from the collections of the Museum of Cinema are displayed.

The exhibition addresses the concept of "esperpento", formulated by Valle Inclán in the 1920s, as a nucleus of aesthetic thought capable of offering a new perspective to understand reality. It brings together a set of numerous documents, objects and works by fundamental artists in the history of Spanish Art such as Eugenio Lucas Velázquez, José Gutiérrez Solana, María Blanchard or Rosario de Velasco, as well as international modernity, such as Umberto Boccioni, José Clemente Orozco , André Masson or Caspar Neher, who help understand the aesthetic synthesis of grotesque through popular art and the artistic movements of the 20th century.

The objects from the Cinema Museum, from the Tomàs Mallol and Francesc Junyent collections, are shown in the section dedicated to the last decades of the 19th century entitled “Before the esperpento” where a selection of satirical press and popular paintings and optical devices are shown. which were a precursor to deformation techniques: a magic lantern for phantasmagoria, magic lantern plates, anamorphic drawings and figures and shadow theaters.

(English version by Google Translate)