Exhibition: Acquisitions 02/07 - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

Finished

2007-12-10 • 2008-02-10

Acquisitions 02/07

BBK Room

BBVA has been a Museum Trustee since 2002 as a result of its contribution to the development and implementation of the Collection Master Plan, designed to update, revamp and capitalize on the collection by ensuring it is regularly exhibited and enhanced through new acquisitions. Dating from December 2001, the agreement has indeed enabled the Museum to acquire an impressive selection of artworks. Now, this new exhibition presents all the works acquired between 2002 and 2007, including pieces by artists not previously represented in the collection (including Jenaro Pérez Villaamil, R.B. Kitaj, Peter Blake, John Davies, Miquel Barceló, Markus Lüpertz, Jacques Lipchitz, Juan Luis Moraza and Darío Urzay) and others by artists who already had works at the Museum, such as Eduardo Zamacois, Vicente López, Jorge Oteiza, Eduardo Chillida, Vicente Ameztoy, Juan José Aquerreta, Amable Arias, Txomin Badiola, Luis Fernández, Pablo Palazuelo and Alfonso Gortázar. In all, 192 artworks in a remarkably broad range of artistic techniques and media: 30 paintings, 24 sculptures and installations, 120 works on paper and 18 posters. One hundred and twenty-three date back to the 19th century, 61 come from the 20th century and 8 are 21st century originals.

In 2002 the Museum acquired a large group of works with the intention of updating what was already the finest existing collection of Basque art. Works were purchased by many artists, including Ángel Bados, Juan José Aquerreta, José Ramón S. Morquillas, Daniel Tamayo, Txomin Badiola, Darío Urzay, Juan Luis Moraza, Jesús M. Lazkano, Pello Irazu, Amable Arias, Mari Puri Herrero and Alfonso Gortázar. Despite their status as major Basque artists, most of them had until then been poorly represented or entirely absent from the collection. That same year, the Museum acquired two etchings by Ricardo Baroja. Later, the Museum purchased works by Marcial de Aguirre, Eduardo Chillida, Jorge Oteiza, Remigio Mendiburu, Eduardo Zamacois, Enrique Nieto Ulíbarri, Rafael Balerdi, Juan Mieg, Vicente Ameztoy, Joaquín Lucarini, José Ángel Lasa, José Zugasti, Antonio María Lecuona, Aurelio Arteta and Roberto Laplaza.

Also acquired were seven artworks by other major Spanish artists, these being Vicente López, Jenaro Pérez Villaamil, Federico de Madrazo, Raimundo de Madrazo, Luis Fernández, Pablo Palazuelo and Miquel Barceló. The first four were among the most important Spanish painters of the 19th century, and the works by them bought in 2004 and 2005 provided further evidence of the Museum's ongoing interest in reviewing and upgrading its 19th century collection. The other three are contemporary artists: the outstanding works by Luis Fernández and Pablo Palazuelo rounded off their contributions to the Museum collection. The work by Miquel Barceló was the first by this prestigious cntemporary to be added to the collection.

Finally, a number of foreign artists from the second half of the 20th century now have works in the Museum collection. Jacques Lipchitz, for instance, now has a Cubist sculpture of architectural forms, while CoBrA group member Karel Appel is represented by an abstract expressionist painting. In 2002 the Museum bought one painting each by the slightly younger artists Peter Blake and Ronald B. Kitaj, both once part of the inner circle of leading Pop artists. With the inclusion of a sculpture by John Davies, the process has seen the addition of artists who were leading figures in English art in the last third of the 20th century. In 2002 the Museum also acquired an excellent example of German neo-Expressionism in the shape of a sculpture by Markus Lüpertz.

 

John Davies (Cheshire, United Kingdom, 1946)
(Every) War Memorial, 1974-1977
Mixed media. 162,5 x 366,5 x 244 cm
Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

Organizer/s: