Words of Painting

This project tries to investigate the connection between pictorial and literary creation, selecting some exceptional moments of XXth century, in which the overlap of both disciplines boosted the development of outstanding works of art that played a crucial role in the definition of modernity.

The genre chosen for that purpose is the artist’s book, the illustration of a literary text by a painter who uses some of the procedures of creative printing: xylography, engraving, lithography, etc… Samples of special historic significance have been chosen, books that turned into being key works of art for the XX century, either due to the role they played in the career of its author or due to their influence upon other contemporary or later artists. Together with the books, pictures or drawings created around them by their authors will be exhibited. Regarding the texts, three alternative criteria have been followed: to belong to the artist himself, to be written by a writer very close to him, or lastly, to be classical texts appropriated by the artist by illustrating them.

The project does not aim to any kind of thoroughness. It selects five topics, which cover five dates in the XX century. In each of these five domains we compare two painters whose respective works have affinity or contrast relations and correspondence. When establishing these relations, the curators take on the liberties of poetic truth.

Topics

1.- Towards a universal language A) V. Kandinsky- Klänge, 1913 (text by Kandinsky) B) Ol’ga Rozanova / Aleksey Kruchenykh. Universal War, 1916

2.- Simultaneity and distance A) Sonia Delaunay, Blaise Cendrars. La prose du Transiberien, 1913 B) P. Klee. Del poema de Wang Feng Yu. II, 1916

(The relation between text an image in Klee’s work is so tight that it is extended to all his production. For this reason we have not chosen just one book but a picture which is a drawn text and which is placed, as in the other cases, in the centre of a group of related works)

3.-Obliterations A) Maz Ernst, La femme 100 têtes, 1929 B) P. Picasso /H. Balzac. Le chef d’oeuvre inconnu, 1931

4.- Zenith A) H: Matisse. Jazz, 1947 B) J. Miró / A. Breton. Constelaciones, (1940-41) 1959

5.- Nadir A) R. Rauschenberg / Dante. Canto (1959) 1964 B) A. Saura / Prensa diaria. Nulla dies sine línea, 1994 Pressetext

Words of Painting
Kuratoren: Tomas Llorens, Miguel Fernandez-Cid
Koordination: Maria do Ceu Baptista

mit Wassily Kandinsky, Sonia Delaunay, Blaise Cendrars, Paul Klee, Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso, Honoré de Balzac, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, André Breton, Robert Rauschenberg, Dante Alighieri, Antonio Saura, u.a.