Arts and culture 27 Dec 2016

Bosch, Louise Bourgeois, chess and the avant-gardes shone in 2016

In 2016, the BBVA Foundation sponsored a number of extraordinary exhibitions in collaboration with some of the top museums in Spain, including the Prado, the Guggenheim or the Miró Foundation, which drew both fervent praise and huge crowds. In a year marked by the 500th anniversary of Hieronymus Bosch’s death, Louise Bourgeois’ works and the history of avant-gardes told through chess also won over audiences.

Fernando Martín Pérez

Listen to audio Leer en español

1

The Kings of Spain and Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands, accompanied by BBVA Group Executive Chairman Francisco González, the Minister of Education, Sports and Culture, Iñigo Méndez de Vigo et al. at the opening of the El Bosch. The 5th Centenary Exhibition.
2

The exhibition consisted of 29 works, including The Garden of Earthly Delights, the Haywain Triptych, and the Triptych of the Temptation of St. Anthony, alongside other works from the Flemish master on loan from the National Gallery in London or the Albertina in Vienna.
3

With over 585,000 visitors, Bosch. The 5th Centenary Exhibition became the most successful ever for the Prado Museum. The exhibition's popularity forced the Museum to extend its regular opening hours, closing doors at midnight during its final two weekends. Besides the exhibition, the Prado Museum, in partnership with the BBVA Foundation, produced a documentary that has recently earned a nomination to the Goya awards, Spain’s main national film awards.
4

4. The history of the avant-garde movements told through chess. This is the basic premise of this Endgame: Duchamp, chess and avant-gardes, sponsored by the BBVA and Miró Foundations, and which gathers 80 works by artists such as Paul Klee, Vasili Kandinski or Marcel Duchamp himself.
5

The narrative of the exhibition is illustrated by paintings, sculptures, books, posters, photographs and movies, some of which have never been on display before in Spain It is structured around six sections that focus on topics as diverse as chess as an element of education, of analysis or even of propaganda during wartime.
6

The exhibition opened in October and will run through January 22, 2017.
7

Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum provided the perfect setting for one of the year’s best exhibitions. Louise Bourgeois. Structures of Existence: The Cells invited visitors to take a journey through the mind of the artist and the cells she conceived as a way to convey her pain and distress.
8

28 small rooms filled with everyday, yet highly symbolic, objects. The exhibition was the first solely devoted to analyzing the Cells series, and the different meanings Bourgeois attached to this word.
9

Over 660,000 people visited this exhibition, bearing witness to the enduring relevance of one of the most prominent artists of the 20th century.