-The exhibition, which runs from 21st June to 10th September at the Pablo Gargallo museum in Zaragoza, features works by Nonell, Torres-García, Barceló, Hans Hartung and Piero Manzoni, among others

-The abertis foundation is supporting this event with the aim of bringing art and culture to wherever the Abertis corporation is present

Zaragoza city council, the Francisco Godia foundation and the abertis foundation present, in Zaragoza, the exhibition The Roots of Contemporary Art at the Francisco Godia Foundation. This event features works by 23 artists from the collection built up by the art patron from Barcelona Francisco Godia Sales (1921-1990). It is open to the public at the Pablo Gargallo museum from 21st June to 10th September.

The exhibition features works by pioneers of modernity such as Hermen Anglada-Camarasa, Francesc Gimeno, Joaquim Mir, Isidre Novell and Josep Maria de Sucre. It also includes contemporary works of art from 1920 to 1950, such as those by José de Togores, Joaquín Torres García, Julio González, Pere Pruna, Óscar Domínguez, Antoni Clavé and Ismael de la Serna. Also present at the exhibition is the cream of the second avant-garde, with works by Juan Genovés, Josep Maria Subirachs and Jorge Castillo, and the modern day, with a selection of works by Miquel Barceló, Modest Cuixart, Hans Hartung, Josep Guinovart, Piero Manzoni, Joan Ponç, Josep Riera i Aragó and Josep Uclés.

One of the most outstanding features of the Francisco Godia foundation’s collection of contemporary art is that it combines the collector’s personal taste and refined sensitivity with a view of the 20th century, awake to the main aesthetic debates and with a strong sense of history.

The exhibition offers a reading of the art of the last hundred years, in which artists and their works map out lines of development. Thus, it displays the direct, personal testimonial language of artists as unclassifiable as Mir and Gimeno, who produced their work on the fringes of convention and fashion, as well as the explosion of creativity and formal freedom of recent decades.

An Exhibition which Goes Beyond Schools and Movements

The Roots of Contemporary Art reconstructs the historical discourse concerning 20th century art from an innovative point of view which focuses on the artists rather than on schools and movements. “Evelí Torent playing the guitar” (c.1901-1904) by Hermen Anglada-Camarasa, which opens the exhibition, situates us at a turning point.

Pictorial values take on their own importance in the brazen art of Gimeno, in the violent colourism of Joaquim Mir, in Novell’s portraits of gypsy women and in the early brushstrokes of Josep Maria de Sucre. This is the starting point of a tradition which, throughout the 20th century, brings together the work of Clavé and Barceló, of Torres-García and Piero Manzoni, of Óscar Domínguez and Hans Hartung.

Among the works on show in Zaragoza, a double oil – front and back – by Óscar Domínguez stands out, revealing very clearly the impact of the avant-garde movements on the artists of the post-war period. Another of the artists who personifies the mutations and changes in the sensitivities of contemporary art is Joaquín Torres-García, by whom two works are on show: his “Female Figure” of 1928, which introduces ideographic representation, and “Constructive View of Colour and Graphics” from 1936.

With regard to the work of artists currently active, outstanding pieces include “Rhinoceros” (1981) by Miquel Barceló, a Cuixart (“Painting”, from 1959), a Guinovart from 1959 and “Composition” by Hans Hartung (1958). The exhibition also features the work of artists like Juan Genovés, Jorge Castillo and Josep Uclés.

The Distinctive Work of Joan Ponç

A subtle thread runs through these works, created in different places and at different times. In the words of the exhibition organiser, the philosopher and art critic Arnau Puig, “The collection was built up according to the tastes of the collector, but also taking into account the real art of our time, not just works which enjoy wide recognition but also modern ones, and others which, at the time, were disregarded because they did not fit in with what was seen as the correct aesthetic line.”

In this connection, the collection of works by Joan Ponç stands out. Francisco Godia was one the main collectors and patrons of this distinctive artist, who emerged from the Dau al Set group in the 1940’s, to create an enigmatic body of work which vehemently, vividly expresses the tattered and torn contemporary soul.

The Francisco Godia Foundation

The Francisco Godia foundation is the home of the Francisco Godia Sales collection, one of the most important private art collections in Spain. It specialises in mediaeval art, ceramics and modern painting, which it displays to the public through a permanent selection and temporary exhibitions.

One of the foundation’s goals is to publicise the role of private collectors in the preservation of cultural heritage. To this end it organises themed exhibitions which make it possible to see – often for the first time – the country’s leading private collections.

The abertis foundation

The abertis foundation supports the study of the impact of infrastructures on regions, especially on the environment, the economy and population. The foundation also encourages and disseminates our cultural and artistic values. Numerous examples demonstrate this sensitivity: the restoration, preservation and opening to the public of the castle of Castellet (Barcelona province) and the Roman quarry of El Mèdol (Tarragona province); the sculptures sited along the AP-7 motorway; or the ceramic murals to be seen at the service areas on the AP-2 motorway between Zaragoza and the Mediterranean link.

In backing this exhibition in the capital of Aragon, the abertis foundation meets three of its commitments: helping to disseminate the artistic legacy, bringing culture to the regions in which the abertis corporation operates and working together with the country’s leading institutions, on this occasion Zaragoza city council’s Pablo Gargallo museum and the Francisco Godia foundation.