Museums

The exhibition shows the works donated to the IVAM by the artist José Manuel Ballester, a series of thirteen photographs with pictures taken in different museum spaces, such as the extension of the Museo Nacional del Prado, designed by Rafael Moneo, the extension of the Museo de Arte Thyssen-Bornemisza, the new galleries of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, designed by Jean Nouvel, the CAB Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos, the model for the extension of the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM) made by Sejima and Nishizawa and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. José Manuel Ballester (Madrid, 1960) occupies a prominent place in the recent Spanish art scene thanks to his painting and photographic work interpreting public architecture and its urban context with a personal contemporary language, full of learned references and endowed with a technical virtuosity gleaned from the study of the great masters. His images condense fragments of architecture and explore the luminous, harmonious splendour of empty spaces. A catalogue has been brought out for the exhibition reproducing the works shown and including texts about Ballester by Raquel Gutiérrez, an interview to the artist made by Mar Menéndez Reyes and the curator of the exhibition, Fernando Castro Flórez.