In 2022, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is celebrating its 25th anniversary with an ambitious presentation of works from the permanent collection that unfolds throughout the galleries museum-wide. The exhibition is conceived as a large triptych, constructed through three thematic approaches that are placed in dialogue with one another, as a means to rediscover works that have historically defined both the interior and the exterior of the Museum. Thus, in Sections / Intersections, each floor of the building offers a section of the collection in three primary axes: Unfolding Narratives, and Marking History. For the first time, this exhibition offers a panoramic view of the wealth of the cultural and artistic holdings the Museum has acquired through the present day.
Curators: Lekha Hileman Waitoller, Manuel Cirauqui, Geaninne Gutiérrez-Guimarães, Lucía Agirre, Maite Borjabad.
More information at: Guggenheim Bilbao
La stanza della madre, 1995 - 1997. Oil and tempera on canvas. 17 panel cycle (10 panels: 239 x 480 cm; 2 panels: 360 x 480 cm; 2 panels: 90 x 518 cm; 2 panels: 90 x 400 cm; 1 panel: 119 x 480 cm). Guggeheim Bilbao Museum
Francesco Clemente
second floor, gallery 203
An interest in the body, the connection with the spiritual plane, astrology, and the influence of Indian culture can all be seen in the works of Francesco Clemente (b. 1952). The stanza or room mentioned in the title evokes Renaissance chambers or rooms, where refuge was sought from the outside world. They were spaces that encouraged rest, contemplation, and calm. If the walls of this gallery could talk, they would reveal the hidden secrets of such an intimate room.
This installation by Francesco Clemente was commissioned by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao for its inaugural exhibition in 1997. The seventeen panels comprising it were painted with oil and tempera on the remains of a theater curtain; as if it were a fresco, they unfold on the walls and frame the entrances to contiguous spaces. The monumentality of the space and the work emanate grandiosity and envelop the spectator.
More information at: Guggenheim Bilbao
Smiles, 1993 - 1994. Oil on canvas. 244 x 183 cm. Guggenheim Bilbao Museum
Alex Katz
second floor, gallery 202
Many of the subjects portrayed by Katz are women. The series Smiles (1994), in the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection, comprises eleven portraits of smiling women, all set against a dark, neutral background. Katz often draws on his closest circle as the subjects of his portraits (his wife, friends, and so on, often identified by the name incorporated into the title of the painting). Here his subjects function as a research tool in his investigation of the traditional figure-ground relationship. While his work is consistently representational, Katz does not aim to represent the sitter’s personality, but rather to present a more profound reflection on the nature of representation and the perception of images. By repeating the same framing device, figure-ground treatment, and gesture —the smile— Katz invites us in this series of works to focus not on the specific subject but on the pictorial experimentation across these varied depictions.
More information at: Guggenheim Bilbao
Mother's Room (La stanza della madre) was a commission for the inauguration of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. This group of 17 panels evokes the large-scale decorative murals of Medieval and Renaissance palaces. As is usual with Clemente, elements from previous works reappear here. The artist's recurrent motifs preclude a strictly linear reading of stylistic development in his oeuvre and serve as a visual lexicon linking one work to the next. References to elemental forces—earth, water, fire, and air—are juxtaposed with symbolism from Indian culture, religious history, and astrology. In Mother's Room, Clemente used a stage backdrop from the 1920s as his canvas. The patches in the material and its faded background design serve as the basis for the painting and enhance the lyricism of the work. The word stanza (room) in the work's title brings to mind Renaissance stanze, rooms that provided refuge from the outside world.
More information at: Guggenheim Bilbao