Today, the MAPFRE Foundation has announced what will be its autumn exhibition programme, which will consist of five exhibitions that can be visited in its rooms in Madrid and Barcelona.
In Madrid we will see exhibitions that will address fundamental stages in the development of modernity and the international avant-garde, as well as a retrospective of the American photographer Minor White who has already passed through the Catalan capital. In Barcelona, the KBr Photography Center will host the production of the Dutch photographer Dana Lixenberg and a new edition of the KBr Flama initiative.
From September 24 to January 10, 2027, Recoletos will host the exhibitions «Pre-Raphaelism. Feminine Itineraries”, “1850-1914, The Other Shore of the Avant-garde” and “Minor White”. The first will examine this movement that emerged in Great Britain in the mid-19th century based on the contributions of its creators and under the curatorship of Pamela Gerrish Nunn. Her ties with male artists, the influence of the critic John Ruskin or her autonomy of judgment and artistic sensitivity will be studied. We will see oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, engravings, photographs, textiles, embroidery, enamels and stained glass made by authors such as Elizabeth Siddal, Julia Margaret Cameron, Evelyn de Morgan, May Morris and Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, among others.
Pre-Raphaelism. Female itineraries. Mapfre Foundation, 2026
“The other shore of the avant-garde” takes as its starting point the publication Expressions of madness (1922), by the German psychiatrist and art historian Hans Prinzhorn, in turn based on the collection of works by psychiatric patients that he gathered at the Heidelberg University Hospital. At the time it gave an unknown visibility to these creations and questioned the boundaries between art, illness and creativity.
The exhibition, curated by Pilar Soler, will analyze both the cultural context in which the text emerged and its echo in avant-garde movements, in addition to the instrumentalization of the book and Prinzhorn’s collection by Nazism to discredit modern art or its contribution to the birth of the art brut. Likewise, it will emphasize how the works made by psychiatric patients modified the understanding of artistic practice in the last century.
The other shore of the avant-garde. Mapfre Foundation, 2026
As for the Minor White retrospective, curated by Carlos Gollonet, it will review the main stages of his production, paying attention, above all, to his photographic sequences, conceived by the artist as narrative and poetic groups around nature, landscape, portraiture and the male nude.
Minor White. Cape Ann, Massachusettsof Sequence 1968. The Minor White Archive, Princeton University Art Museum
Already in Barcelona, from October 1 to January 17, 2027, KBr will host the exhibitions «Dana Lixenberg. American Images” and “KBr Flama’26”. Lixenberg is the author of photography with an honest and committed look at those she has portrayed: for thirty years, marginalized communities, characters from popular culture and landscapes, in the latter case linked to memory and identity.
“American Images” will be an approach to contemporary American society through some of his notable works: from Imperial Courtsbegun after the Los Angeles riots of 1992, to his series in Jeffersonville (Indiana) and Shishmaref (Alaska) or an installation with his Polaroids. In both cases, he has documented diverse realities from an approach that is far from stereotypes and respectful of his protagonists.
Organized in collaboration with the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, this anthology has been curated by Laurie Hurwitz and Marcel Feil.
As for the sixth edition of KBr Flama, the annual project aimed at making visible the paths of young photographers trained in photography schools in Barcelona, this year it will allow us to meet Sara Bravo, Elena Bulet i Llopis, Luca Gaetano Pira and Meghan Mathews, chosen by a jury made up of Roser Cambray, Cristina de Middel and Carles Guerra.
Dana Lixenberg. Tupac Shakur1993 Series Portraits. Courtesy of the artist and Grimm Amsterdam, London, New York. © Dana Lixenberg
Meghan Mathews. No title. Project It Was Good Enough For Our Mothers2023. © Meghan Mathews
