Es Baluard Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art in Palma was opened in 2004 as a cultural institution for research and dissemination of Balearic & Mediterranean art from the 20th and 21st centuries. The museum is housed in a former military fortress - the Baluard de Sant Pere - which dates back to the 16th century, and was part of the Renaissance wall that surrounded the city of Palma.
The collection of the Foundation Es Baluard consists of paintings, sculptures, ceramics and drawings by artists emerging from the late 19th century: Cézanne, Gauguin, Picasso, Miro, Picabia, Magritte, Giacometti , Motherwell, Tàpies, to more recent artists such as Horn, Plessi, Polke, Kiefer, Schnabel, Barceló, and Scully. There are also outstanding examples of Catalan and Mediterranean landscapes, and artists who directly or indirectly have been associated with the Balearics: S. Rusiñol, J. Mir, A. Gelabert, H. Anglada-Camarasa, J. Or MH Mompó Ramis, among others.
The museum covers a total surface of 5,027 square metres, with 2,500 sq.m of exhibition space. The museum features one of the largest cisterns from the 17th century, known as 'The Aljub'. This fresh water reservoir was used to supply the Sant Pere quarter,as well as ships that used to dock in the harbour. It is now used as a setting for installations of contemporary artists, and for shows and concerts. The exhibition space extends on to large terraces and external spaces, from where wonderful views of the Bay of Palma can be enjoyed.
The main current exhibition is a
retrospective of Majorcan audiovisual artist
Bernardí Roig. Eighteen films have been installed on the lower floor of the museum creating a hellish environment through the conflicting soundscapes and the absurd, violent performative acts depicted in repeating loops from which the characters are unable to escape. '
These works tell us about an insatiable and nonsensical sisyphic absurd where the solitary figures of each of the videos act, caught in the repetition of gestures, in a sameness spiral. Either carrying a lamp on his back, sewing his mouth forever, spinning with a spotlight on his head without being able to get out of the claustrophobic spaces of rationalism, climbing a mountain constantly to never reach the ruins of the language philosopher’s cottage, or trapped between laughter and the aphonia of mute insults.'
The
Museu Fundación Juan March in Palma de Mallorca has a
permanent collection of seventy works by the most important Spanish vanguard artists of the twentieth century (Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Juan Gris and Salvador Dalí among them). The collection also includes representative examples of the innovative artistic movements of the mid-twentieth century with works by the most recent generations of Spain's artists. A total of fifty-two artists are represented. The Museum's galleries for
temporary exhibitions display works by both national and international contemporary artists. The current exhibition is of prints by Picasso from the Fundación Juan March collection. Inaugurated in 1990, the Museum is centrally located in Palma, in an eighteenth-century building of regionalist style with touches of modernist inspiration.
Among the collection I was particularly interested in
La estancia which 'brings together all the "ingredients" that make up
[Guillermo] Pérez Villalta’s universe: Renaissance and mannerism, trompe-l’oeil and contorted figures, narrative and autobiographical elements, narcissism, cultural references, the blurring between reality and representation, interest in southern landscapes, and the neomodern style of the Costa del Sol. The naked and reflective man on the left is a self-portrait. Next to him, an empty glass has been knocked down, while one of the two figures depicted in the central mural prepares to place a crown of thorns on his head—this image brings to mind Cristo en la columna [Christ at the Column, 1980], a work where Pérez Villalta portrays himself in a similar manner. The figure on the right is also a self-portrait. Lying on a neo-modernist multicolored mattress, the artist lies with his back turned to the spectator. A full glass of wine rests on a palette beside him, as a Mediterranean landscape appears to unfold on the background. The mural also features a lamb pierced through by an arrow.'
Also,
Jordi Teixidor's
High Altar. Teixidor is 'an artist who remains faithful to the essence of modern painting, he has learned and experimented extensively, creating extremely personal works characterized by the liveliness of the colors, the subtle nuances of the brushstrokes and the serenity of the compositions. The result is expressed in large fields of color that respond to the restrained geometrical structures that precisely delimit them. The title of the work ['High Altar'], however, seems to refer to history, albeit to the history of painting itself. The words "high altar" bring to mind the large-scale altarpieces in which baroque artists experimented widely with colors And the effects of chiaroscuro. The succinct geometrical form that bites into The rich chromatic field at the upper edge of the painting offers the only reference To the title, although, in its minimalist essentialism, this flat form in the shape of a double T Is an abstract element devoid of any reference or expressivity.'
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Eurythmics, Aretha Franklin -
Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves.
