Although it is little known and investigated, two of the most important artists of the 20th century visited Spain in the first half of the last century. Josef Albers (Bottrop, Germany, 1888-New Haven, USA, 1976) and Robert Rauschenberg (Port Arthur, USA, 1925-Captiva Island, USA, 2008) traveled, respectively, in 1930 and 1953 for very different reasons.

After occupying his new position at the Bauhaus – where he coincides with the newly appointed director Mies van der Rohe – Albers took advantage of the summer of 1930 to travel around Europe. From his movements through Spain, only images of a bullfight in San Sebastian -with which the artist made two collages- and as many photographs of Barcelona are preserved. One of them, which reflects the orderly rigor of wicker armchairs in the classic summer nightstand, and which accompanies this press release, was unpublished and has recently been found among the artist’s legacy collections on the occasion of research to document this exhibition.

Rauschenberg’s first trip to Spain was his European and North African Capital Grand Tour with Cy Twombly. Unlike the extraordinary Roman images that are carefully composed, in which Twombly served at times as a model, the Spanish photographs are in appearance tremendously anecdotal: some boats that saturate the waters of the port of Algeciras and two images of Madrid walls full of blots , pieces of poster and naive drawings. Despite this simplicity, the photographs taken in Spain announce what the complex composition of his works would be like upon his return to the United States, especially in the years to come.

We are thus facing a few photographs that reflect small details of the daily life of the Spain of the last century, but, if both artists that anecdotal detail (some chairs in Barcelona or a wall full of presences in Madrid) was what caught their attention, that was the impression that they both had of the Spain of that time; that was, therefore, their look at Spain.

On the occasion of the exhibition, a catalogue was published with an essay by Mimi Thompson*.

See full catalogue HERE.

*Mimi Thompson has written essays for the Guggenheim Museum, Kunstmuseum Luzern or the Tomie Ohtake Institute. She has written texts on artists such as Roni Horn, Yayoi Kusama, Judy Pfaff, Robert Rauschenberg or Al Taylor.

 

This exhibition would not have been possible without the collaboration of:
The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
Galería Cayón Gallery thanks both foundations for their enthusiasm, support, encouragement and patience.

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