TAUROMAQUIA – FACING THE BULL

About the exhibition

TAUROMAQUIA

FACE TO FACE WITH THE BULL

9 December 2011-9 April 2012

/press conference 8 December 2011 at 11 am

Gala pre-opening of the exhibition on 8 December at 6 pm/

At the Exhibition Halls of the Municipal House

náměstí Republiky 5, Prague 1, open daily 10 am – 7 pm

In cooperation with the Municipal House in Prague Vernon Consulting is preparing an unusual exhibition titled TAUROMAQUIA, FACE TO FACE WITH THE BULL. The exhibition will run from 9 December 2011 to 9 April 2012 and will be held in Prague’s gem of Art Nouveau Architecture – the Municipal House. At one location visitors will be able to see works by the greatest world artists (Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Francisco Goya) and famous Czech artists (Emil Filla, Karel Čapek). But the exhibition will also offer contemporary art (Fernando Botero). The common theme in the work of all these artists is the bullfight, and the exhibition is offering vibrant and powerful testimony on this controversial theme. As well as offering visitors an extraordinary aesthetic experience Tauromaquia will also convey the atmosphere of an integral part of Spanish culture.

The bullfight, Spain’s exciting spectacle, has fascinated and continues to fascinate artists from all over the world. The theme of the bullfight drew the attention of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Francisco Goya and Fernando Botero, and even that of Czech artists such as Emil Filla and Karel Čapek. The bullfight has also been a source of inspiration for other artists, such as Carlos Aires, Karel Myslbek, Jan Konůpek, Jitka Válová, Linka Procházková and many more.

The exhibition is aimed at a wide spectrum of the public, from students, to adults, families with children, and seniors, and will present Prague with major figures and famous styles of centred on a common theme: the bullfight. The exhibition will thus also have an educational dimension: the bullfight will familiarise people with the theme of the toreador. Visitors will be able to get a close look at thematic posters, films, and books, and, for instance, even a real toreador’s suit.  

The bull, the exhibition’s central motif, has a strange mystical significance in most cultures. It symbolises strength, bravery, and fertility. It is the animal force that the bull exudes that lies at the heart of the fascinating images created by the artists on this theme. However, for artists Tauromaquia is not just a passionate spectacle of the battle between man and animal. For example, for Francisco Goya Tauromaquia was a tool with which to express his political opposition to power. Pablo Picasso, who was significantly influenced by Goya, set his Tauromaquia against the dictatorship of General Franco. In the drawing of a bullfight Picasso tried to direct the world’s attention to the bombing of the Basque city of Guernica. In the eyes of the Surrealist master Salvador Dalí the bullfight was conceived as more of a magical rite than a competitive sport.

Tauromaquia was also of special significance for Czech artists. For example, Emil Filla, like Goya and Picasso, used the theme of the bullfight to express the deep suffering of his era. Karel Čapek, whose images of the bullfight will also be exhibited at the Municipal House, visited a bullfight while in Spain. In his travelogue A Trip to Spain (1930) he wrote: ‘The bullfight is the battle between man and animal, one essentially as old as history; it has all the beauty of the struggle, but also all its pain.’

The original drawings, oil paintings, sculpture and archive materials will provide visitors with an overview of the works of great artists but also with insight into the fascinating world of the Spanish bullfight. Many of the works on exhibit have rarely been shown anywhere before. A number have never before been exhibited in Prague, such as Picasso’s architectural drawings of the ‘Plaza de toros’ or the series of photographs from the album of the Bosé-Dominguin family, which contains rare photographs of Picasso dressed as a bullfighter.

Loans for the Tauromaquia exhibition have been provided by a number of major domestic galleries – the National Gallery, GASK, Gallery of Hradec Králové, Regional Gallery in Liberec, Regional Gallery in Zlín, and the Gallery of North Bohemia in Litoměřice. Archive materials and other interesting items connected with the Spanish bullfight are on loan from the Museo Taurino, the Spanish museum of bullfighting. Other works are coming to Prague, for instance, from Museo Casa Natal, the Picasso museum in Malaga.

The Tauromaquia exhibition at the Municipal House is being prepared by a team of curators, members of which are Rudy Chiappini and Serena Baccaglini .

 

Emil Filla
A Beast of Prey Fighting a Bull, oil on canvas, 146x114 cm, Regional Gallery of Fine Arts in Zlín

 

Karel Myslbek

 

 

 

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