Presentation
In 2007, Fundación Botín started its research project on the Drawings of the Great Spanish Masters, involving prestigious specialists who have contributed their knowledge in this initiative aimed at disseminating the world of drawing in Spanish art.
Publications in this sphere have been consolidated by the contribution of significant references by the specialists in, and devotees of, drawing through the catalogues raisonnés. Furthermore, this body of knowledge has been further developed by exhibitions, bringing museum and private collections works to Santander, and thus allowing drawings, folders and albums, frequently hitherto somewhat hidden, to reach the public domain.
Following Eduardo Rosales (1836-1873), Antonio del Castillo (1616-1668), Alonso Cano (1601-1667), Pablo Gargallo (1881-1934), Mariano Salvador Maella (1739-1819) and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682), the exhibition José Gutiérrez Solana (1886-1945) Dibujos / José Gutiérrez Solana (1886-1945) Drawings is a journey through the facet as a draughtsman of this untypical, unconventional artist, so closely bound to our region.
Through almost ninety drawings, José Gutiérrez Solana’s extraordinary personality and unmistakeable universe unfolds against the backdrop of the exhibition hall of Fundación Botín. Solana offers us a highly personal vision of Spain, the one he recognises, not the plural society of his time. Also, his works, and his drawings, distance him aesthetically from the avant-garde artists that prevailed in the era. His figurative style, close to realism and bordering on expressionism, shows him as an isolated figure, unmovable and close to Spanish historical tradition.
This exceptional exhibition of drawings has been made possible, most especially on this occasion, by the collaboration of a numerous group of private collectors who have maintained and preserved the works of this brilliant artist. As María José Salazar, author of the research and curator of the exhibition, points out, it reveals to us an “unusual artist, powerful, hard to describe; the maker of art that is clearly rooted in the life, traditions and customs of Spain and, in many cases, linked to the land of Cantabria, which he always felt as his own ".
Fundación Botín
Abril 2013