An artistic expression that reminded me of one of the subjects I was taught in my years as a student of drawing and painting, the human body as beauty, as worthy of being painted and valued.
The posters in the streets of the city some time ago, before the Christmas season, advertised an exhibition that interested me a lot. The paintings alone reminded me of my student years and how important it was to know how to paint the human figure.
Among the list of subjects I had at that time was the human figure, as they called it at the time. It meant knowing how to draw and paint different parts of the human body in the nude. Great painters in history have painted nudes in their works in order to enhance the beauty of the human body in all its expressions.
But for a long time in history, this was practically forbidden or forbidden. It was only at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century that this art form began to be seen in great painters. And in this exhibition you can see works by renowned artists such as Dalí, as well as more modern painters and abstract paintings of nudes in the time of art.
According to the writing on the wall at the entrance of the room, almost ninety works are exhibited, where you can see more than a century of nudes in Spanish art, from 1870 to 1970. This artistic genre was first developed in other countries.
Works where the individual was represented naturally emerged in modernity, as an opening to the knowledge of the human body and its forms. I remember when I was a student in many academies even real models were painted, both men and women, and I think this is the highest artistic expression.
The human body in its nudity was seen as perfect, that perfection was sought, regardless of how the person was physically. All this comes from the Greek culture and so many others in which human beings have been portrayed and painted in their natural form.
I think that what they wanted to show and what each artist wanted to make known is the beauty of the human being, as a human being in himself, not caring about the shape of the body, but they wanted to express more than what they were painting. The human being as fullness, at least that's what I think, because in reality the physical diversity is so great that I think it refers to more than that.
Through this genre taboos and prejudices were set aside, the human body is beautiful in essence and I put myself in the place of those painters and I think of myself as an artist and I see it that way. In this way the freedom to express this kind of art could reign.
I would look at these paintings and think about the perfection and beauty of the human anatomy and what that entails. It was a time when art was renewed and could express itself freely.
I remember when I started to learn to paint hands, feet, faces and how difficult that seemed but how beautiful and how perfect the features were, how to maintain a certain symmetry, and parameters for example between the fingers of a hand and each other.
And as you can see, not only women were painted, which was the most common thing, but also men, old people, all kinds of bodies, exploring that beauty and perfection that the artists wanted to achieve or that they were trying to demonstrate. It was a revolution in the expression of art.
This exhibition is in the temporary exhibition hall at the Museo Carmen Thyssen until 8 March 2025. And it really is fantastic, it is a demonstration of art at a level of perfection of the features and details of the human body.
Of course I liked the first part of the exhibition much better, which shows more abstract works, but it is all equally valuable. I saw a lot of people at the exhibition and I love that I could see not only older people appreciating this kind of art but also many young people.
I tried to photograph the works with their respective authors on the side and there were not only paintings but also a lot of sculpture which I liked very much. I could see the respect of the visitors for the works, the distance they had to take from the marked places and especially from the sculptures. This art exhibition was very much appreciated for what it really is.
As always, at the exit of the museum, there is the museum shop where there were many articles for sale referring to all the exhibitions, both the permanent and the temporary ones, and I saw many things about the latter. I also wanted to highlight some very original items on sale.
On Sundays from 4 p.m. admission is free until closing time and when I left the museum there were still people queuing for admission. I could tell that many of them were tourists going to this temporary exhibition of art of great historical value.
I really enjoyed this tour and seeing each work up close and in detail. It was a great pleasure for me as an artist.
Thank you very much for joining me, I send you all my best regards. See you soon.
Amonet.
All photographs are my own.
Separators created by me in Photoshop.
Used translator Deepl.com free version.
//:# (!worldmappin 36.721462 lat -4.422985 long Expressive exhibition, free, tending to the search for perfection 📷 Malaga - Spain d3scr)