An architecture of glance Collection of Vicente Saavedra and Mercedes R. del Palacio Press release

Present

Colección Vicente Saavedra / Mercedes R. del Palacio_ Arquitectura de la mirada
Exposición temporal_ 2 de marzo / 3 de junio 2023

LM Arte Colección opens a new exhibition cycle, following the five exhibitions inaugurated during the first year since its opening as a museum centre. This new cycle begins with an emphasis on one of its fundamental lines of work, research into collecting and the dissemination of collections as indispensable tools for understanding artistic phenomena and cultural processes over time.

Coinciding with the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1st International Exhibition of Street Sculpture, which took place in Santa Cruz de Tenerife between 1973 and 1974, LM Arte approaches the collection of the Tenerife architect Vicente Saavedra (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1937 – 2021), an outstanding personality not only for his extensive and praiseworthy professional career but also for having been one of the leading figures in the field of art, He was also one of the key figures in the organisation of that project, as well as in the cultural renewal and revival that took place during the 1970s, when the College of Architects and its Cultural Commission were one of the most active centres of action on the island.

The collection assembled over several decades by Vicente Saavedra, in which the participation of his wife, Dr. Mercedes Rodríguez del Palacio, was also indispensable, is mainly focused on the 1960s and especially the 1970s and 1980s, and provides an interesting approach to some of the most outstanding figures and artistic proposals of those periods, in which the dialogue between tradition and proposals for aesthetic renewal was fundamental and of unquestionable creative power. In this sense, the presence of figures such as Picasso (whose death is also being commemorated on the fiftieth anniversary of his death and whose work Saavedra showed a special interest in) and Joan Miró are significant and are clearly reflected in pieces by other artists also present in the architect’s collection, such as Guinovart, José Abad and Equipo Crónica, who share a dialogue here with other outstanding names of the stature of Manolo Millares, Martín Chirino, Tàpies, Sempere, Saura, Canogar, Baltasar Lobo and even the sculptor Julio González, among many others who played an important role in the construction and revision of the artistic gaze and collecting in the Canary Islands in the last quarter of the 20th century.

Finally, the opening of this exhibition dedicated to the Vicente Saavedra / Mercedes R. del Palacio Collection. Arquitectura de la mirada will also be complemented by another exhibition proposal, with the coexistence of a dozen pieces from this collection temporarily included in the permanent exhibition of the Centre, opening a suggestive Dialogue between collections.

Curaror: Eliseo G. Izquierdo

Works by:

José Abad; Enric Ansesa Gironella; Eduardo Arranz-Bravo; Alfonso Bonifacio; Ramón Canet; Rafael Canogar; Joaquim Chancho; Eduardo Chillida; Martín Chirino; Javacheff Christo; Antoni Clavé; Alejandro Corujeira; Equipo Crónica; Carlos Cruz-Díez; José Luis Fajardo; Amadeo Gabino; Julio González; José Guerrero; José de Guimaraes; Josep Guinovart; Manuel Hernández Mompó; Robert Jacobsen; Baltasar Lobo; Nino Longobardi; Manuel Millares; Lucio Muñoz; Joan Miró; José María Navascués; José Niebla; Gerhard Naschberger; Miguel Ortiz Berrocal; Eduardo Paolozzi; Roland Penrose; Pablo Picasso; Albert Ràfols-Casamada; Gerardo Rueda; Antonio Saura; Eusebio Sempere; Antoni Tàpies; Cristino de Vera; Eduardo Vicente; Darío Villalba; Manuel Viola; Claude Viseux; Maud Westerdahl; Eduardo Westerdahl.