Democracy and contemporary art
From the free nights of the Movida to the Guggenheim in Bilbao – a country that in a few decades became one of the great stages of contemporary art.
After Franco’s death in 1975 Spain became a democracy. Censorship disappeared and cultural life exploded. In Madrid the Movida emerged, a movement of music, film, photography, fashion and painting, whose best-known name was Pedro Almodóvar. The ARCO art fair started in 1982, and the state built up new museums. The Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid became the country’s great museum of modern art, and Picasso’s Guernica arrived there in 1992. Art took on a new role in a free society.
During the 1980s and 1990s every region acquired its own museums of contemporary art, such as IVAM in Valencia and MACBA in Barcelona. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, designed by Frank Gehry and opened in 1997, became a worldwide sensation. The building showed how architecture and art could transform an entire city. Spanish architects meanwhile won international recognition, and Rafael Moneo designed, among other things, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The museums became symbols of modern Spain.
Spanish contemporary artists today work all over the world. Miquel Barceló has renewed painting and ceramics, and Jaume Plensa has made large public sculptures in several countries. Juan Muñoz and Cristina Iglesias created enigmatic rooms and figures. Other artists work with photography, video and political art. Questions of historical memory, migration, gender and regional identity shape art, and several controversial works have provoked heated debate. Art reflects a country undergoing rapid change.