Madrid,
Only for a few months, in the first half of this year, the ICO Museum moves away from its exhibition path usually dedicated to architecture and its images, and the reason is celebratory: its three decades of experience as an artistic and cultural center. Inaugurated in 1996, in its first steps this space focused fundamentally on exhibiting its collections – it was since 2012 when its activity settled in that field of architecture and urban planning – and the proposal that has been inaugurated there today, under the curatorship of María Toral, refers to that early journey.
“Transiting the 20th century. Drawing and sculpture in the ICO Collections” proposes a fundamentally chronological journey through the development of Spanish art in the last century through these collections, starting from small and medium formats and, above all, suggesting relationships between two-dimensional pieces (drawings and paintings) and three-dimensional pieces (sculptures). In most cases, this project includes works in different disciplines by the same author and highlights how, over the decades, the boundaries between one technique and another became less accentuated. In some cases we will also see how pieces by different authors and stages can be associated.
Some of the selected works are known or refer to others that are, but in other cases they will represent a discovery: the last time the ICO Museum showed creations from its collection of modern Spanish sculpture and drawing was in 2010, on the occasion of its “Contrast Lighting” exhibition. At that time the tour, led by Óscar Alonso Molina, also included photography and graphic arts.
This time emphasis is placed on those profound transformations of the carving since, at the end of the 19th century, it began to shed its previous monumental character and the demand for durability to explore its relationships with space as a fundamental issue. Many of the pieces in the rooms are made of wood and incorporate color, approaching the conventions of painting.
The tour begins with a nod to Gaudí on the centenary of his death (he will not be the only architect summoned), to then review cubist sculptures born in Paris, with female representations by Julio González and Picasso or a harlequin in cut and painted metal by Juan Gris. Next, the evolution of this discipline in our country is reviewed as surrealism, constructivism, abstraction or postmodern currents enjoy success.
We will see Dalí’s nude in painted bronze feminine, historical and streamlined next to the drawing of a skull like a stone with ants, which for him were superior beings capable of eating everything, even time. And not far away are Ángel Ferrant, who defended the avant-garde from within and came to work in cork, and Alberto Sánchez, Eugenio Granell and Esteban Vicente, who from exile used metal or wood in pieces that refer to the need for memory and reconstruction.
On the upper floor we will see ourselves immersed in softer lighting, which accompanies mostly abstract pieces, with a more austere aesthetic and white, black and gray tones.
The exhibition includes the exploration of three-dimensionality from the line by Chirino, Chillida and Oteiza, the compositional cleanliness of Palazuelo, a delicious wood sculpture by Álvaro Siza (who cultivated this technique before being seduced by architecture) or curves as a key to the language of Andreu Alfaro. And, in addition, Tàpies, crosses and books will appear in our path; Juan Muñoz with interiors and stairs that we will never identify as everyday; a half-open closet by Carmen Laffón and a refrigerator by Antonio López, these are very much ours; a self-portrait by Julio López, all hands making; Barceló turned still life; Jaume Plensa and his curtain of letters Macbeth; a labyrinth by Susana Solano; the finest Adolfo Schlosser or an Eva Lootz critical of mining operations.
This diverse and successful walk through our 20th century sculpture, increasingly difficult to label, culminates with Eduardo Arroyo, who in themes and aesthetics converges, in this tour, with Barceló, Miró or Hugué, and always with Spanish folklore.
“Transiting the 20th century. Drawing and sculpture in the ICO Collections”
ICO MUSEUM
C/ Zorrilla, 3
Madrid
From February 10 to May 10, 2026
