Juan Munoz
dal 26/5/2008 al 4/10/2008
Segnalato da
Marketing and Communications Department
26/5/2008
Juan Munoz
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
In 1984, Munoz's first solo exhibition, held in his home city of Madrid, featured a small winding staircase topped with a balcony, resting against a wall. He said that this work was "the first piece I recall with which I had a certain feeling of identity." This architectural motif would recur throughout the artist's career and now more than two decades later, this sculpture is part of the most important international retrospective of Munoz's work, an exhibition of more than 80 works including sculptures, installations, drawings, radio plays, and writings, some never before seen. Curated by Sheena Wagstaff.
Curated by Sheena Wagstaff
The most important retrospective in Spain of works by this Madrid-born artist, who is also represented in the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection.
A selection of outstanding works from Muñoz’s entire career that reveals some previously neglected aspects of his innovative idiom.
Sculptures, installations, drawings, radio works and writings feature in an exhibition that highlights Muñoz’s mastery in creating tension between the illusory and the real.
From May 27to October 5, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao will be staging the most important retrospective exhibition in Spain of works by Juan Muñoz (Madrid, 1953 – Ibiza, 2001), widely considered one of the world’s finest contemporary sculptors and installation artists.
Curated by Sheena Wagstaff -Chief Curator at Tate Modern- this exhibition is organized by Tate Modern, London, in association with the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The second floor of the museum will host the most outstanding works from Muñoz’s entire career, and will include a number of extra works for the Bilbao venue, throwing new light on the complex nature of his artistic endeavors.
With a selection of nearly 80 works, including sculptures, installations, drawings, radio works and writings, the selection reveals some neglected aspects of the Madrid-born artist’s broad, innovative register. Muñoz studied art in London and New York, living in both cities for a number of years after a brief period spent studying architecture in Madrid.
In the mid 1980s and early 90s, after major exhibitions all over the world, Muñoz had established himself on the international art scene as one of the most important sculptors of recent decades. In Spain, however, true recognition came late, finally arriving in the year 2000, when he was awarded the country’s Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas.
From his early architectural works—staircases, balconies and banisters—located in impossible settings, by way of his optical floors that dissolve the limits of space and time, to his dramatic, theatrical installations involving groups of human figures that evoke the solitude of the individual in society, Muñoz’s works play with the spectator, enticing him into relating to them, even awaking feelings of unease and isolation. Muñoz described himself as “a narrator”, and his ability to propose new forms of contemplation and thought, to create tension between the illusory and the real, made him one of the few artists capable of renewing
contemporary sculpture.
Image: Many Times, 1999. Polyester and resin, Dimensions variable, Private Collection. Photo by Jean Luc Lacroix. Copyright: The Estate of Juan Muñoz, Bilbao 2008
Inauguration and closure dates: May 27 to October 5
Marketing and Communications Department
Tel. +34 944359008 Fax: +34 944359059 media@guggenheim-bilbao.es
Location: second floor
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Avenida Abandoibarra, 2 48001 Bilbao BIZKAIA Spain
Hours:
Tuesday to Sunday: from 10 am to 08 pm
Monday: July and August from 10 am to 8 pm; closed the rest of the year.
There are different admission fees for different types of visitors: adults, students, senior citizens, and groups of more than 20 people. There is no admission fee for children under 12 accompanied by an adult.