History class was going to be very long, as always, for Marta, until the teacher turned off the lights, turned on the projector and pressed the slider button, illuminating the sad canvas that hung on the wall with the portrait of a blond and elegantly dressed woman in profile. It was Giovanna degli Albizzi Tornabuoni, painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio between 1489 and 1490: "an example of a Florentine Quattrocento portrait, idealized and with an expressionless face," said the teacher.
The model, who also posed for Botticelli, was a young Florentine noblewoman who died giving birth to her second child in 1488, aged just 19, a date that appears in Roman numerals on a poster behind her. The purity of her features, the treatment of her cape-dress, the symbology hidden in a cupboard and her story impacted Marta so much that not only was she not bored in class, but she was invaded by a sense of well-being and curiosity. for learning more about painting and asked the teacher to never stop putting slides on them.
Listening to music helps us control the level of glucose in the blood and playing it, to manage stress; dancing brings us benefits in body and mind, and contemplating a painting or a sculpture are capable of relieving us in depressive states. The WHO says so in a recent study in which it concludes that the arts can play a crucial role in our well-being, from birth to death. As an example, the button from before, which is not an invented story, although the name of the protagonist has been changed.
We would find many more (real) stories of how art can improve our lives. Like the one from those vacations in Madrid in 2014, when someone discovered, by chance, that there was an exhibition by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, and it turns out that this is the best memory he kept from that summer. Or like the time someone was sent a long way from home for work, and at night, in his hotel bed, he found some comfort staring at a replica of Edward Hopper's “Hotel Room” before falling asleep.
It is, precisely, from the Thyssen Museum, a public art gallery that comes from a private collection gathered over almost 70 years by the family, and whose works have belonged to the Spanish State since 1983, of which I am commissioned to write an article on the occasion of its 30 anniversary. And I can't help but talk about my own memories tied to this one. Because all the other times that I have been in Madrid, which have not been few, I have returned, as if by medical prescription, to walk through the history of painting from the 13th century to practically all the avant-gardes, between Impressionism and Pop art, from its permanent collection.
Of course, I have greeted Giovanna degli Albizzi Tornabuoni and the woman sitting on the bed in the hotel room, by Hopper, who are part of this collection, stopping, of course, in front of the portrait of Henry VIII of England, by Hans Holbein the young man; the “Saint Catherine of Alexandria” by Caravaggio; the "Green Ballerina" by Edgar Degas or the "Dream caused by the flight of a bee...", by Salvador Dalí.
The times that I have returned to the museum with its salmon-colored walls, I have also visited Pissarro's “Way of Versailles”; "Once upon a time", by Gauguin; "The Ludwigskirche in Munich", by Kandinsky, or "New York Street with a Moon", by Georgia O'Keeffe, all of them part of the Carmen Thyssen collection, which takes a chronological journey from 17th-century Dutch painting to 17th-century art. 20th century and that was born as a natural continuation of the family historical collection, one of the most important private compilations in the world.
Whenever I have returned to that museum, I have been surprised by the temporary exhibitions. Now, on the occasion of its 30th anniversary, new exhibitions can be visited, among which the following stand out:
- Picasso/Chanel, which explores the relationship between these two great creators of the 20th century, the painter and the fashion designer, who were friends and had collaborated professionally. For example, in 1922, when for Jean Cocteau's "Antigone", Picasso was in charge of the sets and masks and Chanel of the costumes. (Until 01/15/23).
- With the exhibition "Hyperrealism", the first installment of a series begins that will follow the formation of the contemporary collection of Blanca and Borja Thyssen-Bornemisza. The couple has been collecting works away from the public gaze, which they now show to the world. Among the eight hyperrealist paintings in the exhibition we will find two views of New York, "People's Flowers" and "Self-portrait near the Oculus at the World Trade Center", by the most iconic representative of American hyperrealism, Richard Estes; the “Tropical Nights”, by Charles Bell, or “Schweppes”, by Raphaella Spence. (Until 01/15/23).
- The third pole. Himali Singh Soin with music by David Soin Tappeser invites you to venture into a fictional mythology through two bodies of work by Indian artist Himali Singh Soin. The exhibition is accompanied by two groups of performances carried out by Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser, coinciding with the opening, on October 24, 2022, and its closing, on January 29, 2023. (From 10/25/ 22 to 01/29/23).
- In the eye of the hurricane. Avant-garde in Ukraine, 1900-1930 presents a comprehensive overview of avant-garde Ukrainian art in the first decades of the 20th century, from figurative art to Futurism and Constructivism. There are some 70 works, among which are paintings, drawings, collages or theatrical designs by Oleksandr Bohomazov, Vasyl Yermilov, Viktor Palmov or El Lissitzky, which they continued to create despite the tragic historical context that the country has experienced and is experiencing.
Art may not change the world, but as filmmaker David Lynch said, "art changes you." (From 11/29/22 to 04/30/23).
