El Arenal in the Background - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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El Arenal in the Background

Herrero, Mari Puri

Bilbao, 12/10/1942

Oil on canvas

162 x 262 cm

1999

Late 20th century

02/157

Acquired in 2002

  • In El Arenal in the Background, a group of not quite faceless members of the bourgeoisie, at its centre a female personage with the classic appearance of a Roman matron, sits around a window that opens onto a recognizable place in Bilbao. The allegory of an insurance company, installed at the top of a dome with its logo featuring a bird, seems about to turn this not overexciting social episode into an ironic parody of the Pentecost. (Javier Viar)

Selected bibliography

  • Adquisiciones 02/07 [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2007. pp. 86-87, n° cat. 34.
  • Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. pp. 158-159.
  • Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. pp. 158-159.
  • Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. pp. 158-159, n° cat. 87b.
  • Viar, Javier. Historia del arte vasco : de la Guerra Civil a nuestros días, 1936-2016. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2017. p. 355.
  • Después del 68 : arte y prácticas artísticas en el País Vasco, 1968-2018 [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. p. 433, il.
  • Viar, Javier. Hijos de la angustia. Bilbao, Muelle de Uribitarte, 2019. pp. 252, 257, il.