18 March – 14 September 2015 Museo Nacional Exhibition 18 March - 14 September 2015 Centro de Arte Reina Sofía Sabatini Building. Floor 1 Sabatini Building Santa Isabel, 52 There is a clear link between these painters Nouvel Building and the rise of minimalism, and one of the Ronda de Atocha salient features of the acquisitions of Franz (with plaza del White Fire Meyer’s period is his preference for works Emperador Carlos V) 28012 Madrid of a cold and distanced nature, precisely at the moment when the European market Tel. (34) 91 774 10 00 The Modern Collection was openly embracing the warm enthusiasm of the pop aesthetic (also Opening hours Monday to Saturday acknowledged by the museum, though less and bank holidays fervently, as shown by the presence of Andy from 10.00 a.m. to 9.00 p.m. of the Kunstmuseum Basel Warhol). The inclusion of works by Donald Judd and Carl Andre enhanced the Sundays from 10.00 a.m. to 2.15 p.m. collection’s personality and led to a complete Museum visit, representative gathering of the less from 2.15 to 7.00 p.m. theatrical variety of minimal sculpture, visit to Colection 1 and a related more to questions of space and temporary exhibition (check Website) visual perception. One prominent instance, given his broad representation in the Closed on Tuesdays collection, is Bruce Nauman, younger than Related activities the first major figures of minimalist art but Visitors are kindly asked to clear the galleries soon one of its most outstanding A propósito de… 15 minutes before closing Barnett Newman practitioners. Nevertheless, his inclusion White Fire. The Modern Collection of the Kunstmuseum Basel White Fire II, 1960 was a bold step for the Kunstmuseum Basel Guided tours of the exhibition for adults www.museoreinasofia.es Mixed media on unprimed canvas to take at that period. Today, time and Fridays at 7.15 p.m. and Sundays at 12.30 p.m. Kunstmuseum Basel, purchased 1973 successive acquisitions have enabled his © Barnet Newman Foundation/New York, VEGAP, Madrid, 2015 Family workshop Combined ticket for the Museo work to be recognized as departing from an Reina Sofía and the Museo del by artists of the first generation of Abstract affiliation with “what you see is what you For children aged 5 to 7 accompanied by adults Prado: € 18 Saturday mornings from 11.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. Expressionism like Mark Rothko and Franz see”, one of the minimalist maxims, to Valid until September 14, 2015 Enrolment on March 18 th Kline, but his interest became progressively connect with the practices of a conceptual Permits entry to the exhibitions focused on the more radical options which art that spread relentlessly in the sixties Artist’s workshop White Fire: The Modern Collection modified the legacy of those pioneers and seventies. Such a turn of events is For children aged 8 to 11 and child care associations of the Kunstmuseum Basel and through a colder aesthetic with more underscored also by the works of artists Collecting and Modernism. Two Monday to Friday from 10.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. Case Studies: The Im Obersteg and like On Kawara and Walter De Maria. speculative intentions, from post-pictorial Enrolment on March 23 rd Rudolf Staechelin Collections , abstraction or the ‘hard edge’ tendency to organized by the Museo Reina Sofía, the first conceptual works based on a Since its origins, an effort has been made to and Ten Picassos from the refinement of the notion of painting. Cases in keep the collection of the Kunstmuseum Kunstmuseum Base l, organized by

Education program developed 5 the Museo del Prado. Full visits to 1 point are Barnett Newman, Agnes Martin Basel closely linked to the present. It with the sponsorship of 0 2 Fundación Banco Santander both museums also included. - Hans Arp , Flèche de nuage [Arrow Cloud], 1932. Painted wood relief 9 and Robert Ryman. This choice from among currently holds various works by many 8 6 Kunstmuseum Basel, Gift Oskar and Annie Müller-Widmann Collection, 1965 8 -

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Y DEPORTE : o p century. keeping its discourse up to date. i N White Fire . The Modern Collection of the Kunstmuseum Basel 18 March – 14 September 2015 White Fire . The Modern Collection of the Kunstmuseum Basel

The Kunstmuseum Basel is considered the first municipal public museum direction of Georg Schmidt, was showing firm Swiss artist’s legacy. Giacometti’s sculptural in the history of art. Its collection spans two main periods, with works support from Switzerland for these new and pictorial investigations are here languages, and saw an opportunity in the public combined with the specific contributions to dating from the 15 th and 16 th centuries on the one hand, and art of the 19 th sale of works from that exhibition to increase early Surrealism of works by Max Ernst, to 21 st centuries on the other. While the Swiss museum is undergoing its holdings by purchasing some of the works Yves Tanguy and André Masson, which are vilified by the German government. The work marked by a tension between abstraction th extension work, a selection of one hundred 20 century masterpieces is of Lovis Corinth acquired on that occasion, and figuration associated with “Les Champs now being exhibited at the Museo Reina Sofía. This exhibition therefore now displayed alongside that of other Northern magnétiques”, the foundational text by offers both a display of key works of modern art and an analysis of the European artists, makes it possible to trace the André Breton and Philippe Soupault which branches from the common trunk of was the precursor of the first Surrealist history and criteria that have configured what is today one of the world’s Primitivism and Expressionism through the manifesto. In this way, the Alberto foremost modern and contemporary art collections. pieces of Emil Nolde, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Giacometti Foundation loan contains pieces Edvard Munch, Max Beckmann and others. related to his Surrealist affiliation as well as later works that show how the sculptor With the donation made by Marguerite crossed the border of the second half of the Arp-Hagenbach in memory of her husband, century, tackling new images of the human The origins of the Kunstmuseum Basel Hodler and their specific approximations, the artist Hans Arp, the museum’s collection that had arisen from Existentialism. The collection lie in the social and institutional respectively, to symbolism and the is decisively impregnated with avant-garde inclusion of Giacometti reveals the echoes dynamics of the city of Basle. One factor was application of avant-garde language to abstract tendencies. The works of Arp, a and crossovers permitted by a collection public initiative through municipal landscape, a genre with a deep-rooted fundamental figure of Dadaism in Zurich that unfolds over time, and which is institutions, which began a collection in the tradition in Switzerland. and of early Surrealism, show how the new constituted, despite its fragmentary nature 17 th century that was focused on art of the role of aleatory composition sacrifices Antoine Pevsner and diverse origins, on the basis of firm present. Another was private participation in The 20 th century art collection of the expressiveness to a certain sense of the Construction surface developable criteria that give it a definite personality. ludic. The rest of the Arp-Hagenbach [Construction with Developable Surface], 1938. Copper the form of contributions over the course of Kunstmuseum Basel contains first-rate pieces Kunstmuseum Basel, Gift Oskar and Annie time by leading collectors belonging to the related principally to two periods: the historic donation reflects the most constructive and Alongside this cross-section of the Fernand Léger Müller-Widmann Collection, 1965 © Antoine Pevsner, VEGAP, Madrid, 2015 Swiss bourgeoisie, many of whom gave or lent European avant-garde movements of the early Les deux figures (Nus sur fond rouge) speculative aspect of abstraction. The pieces European avant-garde movements, the their personal holdings to the museum. The decades of the century, and the art which [Two Figures (Nudes on a Red Ground)], 1923. Oil on canvas by Vassily Kandinsky, more closely linked to second major section of the Kunstmuseum tastes and criteria of those who contributed evolved in the United States in the second half Kunstmuseum Basel, Gift Raoul La Roche, 1965 geometry, are related to his experience at independence from the various avant-garde Basel collection is made up of artworks by © Fernand Léger, VEGAP, Madrid, 2015 to its growth are clearly perceptible, as is the of the century, with a particular emphasis on the Bauhaus, whose influence is also felt in movements make him a specific case that American artists of the second half of the formation of a homogeneous and at the same the development of abstraction after Abstract László Moholy-Nagy, Josef Albers and Max finds a later correlative in the art brut 20 th century. The museum remained time fragmentary narrative that includes Expressionism. Le Corbusier, which display a new distilled Bill, all active in the German school. The aesthetic of the years immediately after the attentive to the evolution of art after the important chapters in the history of modern purism intentionally laden with an Neo-Plasticist art of Piet Mondrian, Theo Second World War. Artists like Jean transfer of its center of gravity from Europe and contemporary art. The collection is The group of Cubist works which makes up the architectural coldness. The work of these two van Doesburg and Georges Vantongerloo, a Dubuffet connect with Klee in their to the other side of the Atlantic, when the furthermore intimately linked to the reality donation of Raoul La Roche contains works artists, who acted as advisors to La Roche on project for the reduction of painting and vindication of a rudimentary art that rejects territorial and stylistic dynamics of the pre- of Switzerland itself, with a Protestant world signed by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and his collection, is seen as largely linked to the sculpture to a minimum in a quest for an such notions as technical skill, turning war years were altered for the rest of the view, the rise of a bourgeoisie active in the Juan Gris, which reflect the early importance of technical drawing in the Swiss objective art, engages in a dialogue with the instead to art by children or the mentally ill century. In 1962, Franz Meyer became the cultural sphere, and a specific set of development of the movement whose visual schools, and indicates a preference for an art international expansion of Constructivism as a proposal for spontaneous and director of the museum and decided to territorial and aesthetic conditioning factors. speculations were to alter the modern gaze with a constructive appearance. as represented by Antoine Pevsner. unsophisticated creation stripped of any bring his predecessor’s constant acquisition This local component is evident in the forever. However, the specificity of this ceremonial or search for beauty. policy up to date. Meyer remained at the inclusion of Swiss artists, enabling a narrative section lies in the inclusion of trends that In 1939, the Nazi regime held an exhibition of The work of the Swiss-born Paul Klee is one helm of the institution until 1980, and it was in which local case studies are complemented added fresh nuances to Cubist postulates, Degenerate Art in Munich which ridiculed of the museum’s strengths thanks to the On long-term loan to the collection is a during those two decades that he built up by leading names on the international scene. from the machine aesthetic and new formal international avant-garde artists, especially donation of Richard Doetsch-Benziger. quarter of the original holdings of the the American section of the collection, One indication of this is the selection of two rotundity of Fernand Léger to the still lifes those from Northern Europe. While this was Klee’s search for a spontaneous painting Alberto Giacometti Foundation, a Zurich- which was completed by his successor, works by Arnold Böcklin and Ferdinand of the Swiss artists Amédée Ozenfant and happening, the Kunstmuseum Basel, under the lacking in rhetoric and his early based foundation that contains much of the Christian Geelhaar. Meyer acquired work