Ways of Seeing

The issue of representation is an intrinsic part of any discussion on the function of art. In order to certify a tendency we need a view of the whole, a collective view of what comprises a particular context. This exhibition was given the title of what was first a famous television programme and then a well-known book by the writer John Berger. Ways of Seeing was, for its curators, a “subjective, partial view revolving around the last ten years of painting in the Valencian region; (…) which does not intend to exhibit a ‘school’ (sic) or a generation, and certainly not of a ‘Valencian’ manner of seeing or understanding art”. It was a “passionate commitment to nine artists whose work extends far beyond the geographical borders they happen to have lived in”.

This (to some extent) generational commitment may be of great help in understanding some of the later movements relating to the importance or unimportance of art as a driving force for transformation, or simply as a mere historical record. It also invites us to notice the partisan use of art in changing cultural politics. The varied trajectories of the artists, some of which focus on the university, on activism or performative practices, some of which follow a more canonical approach, can now be seen as an explicit, well-documented piece of a period in Spanish and Valencian art history.