Related Collection

The union of the Telefónica Cubist Collection and the cubist holdings at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia supports this plural conception of the cubist experience. The union of the two collections also brings the work of Juan Gris to the fore in both the exhibition and the narrative. Thinking about the cubist experience inevitably means thinking about the pervasiveness of the work of Picasso and Braque. But at this point in time, it is not only legitimate and possible to reconsider the cubist experience from the perspective of the formulations of Juan Gris, it is also desirable, because it means recognising the complexity of the true nature of Cubism.

Produced on the occasion of the master lectures of 2011, this video offers a comprehensive theoretical introduction to modernism with the art historian TJ Clark. The author of Picasso and Truth: From Cubism to Guernica (2013) and Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism (1999), among other seminal studies, TJ Clark discusses the ideas that shaped modernism (the process of secularization, the loss of the aura or the disenchantment with the world) and how these notions survive or have been transformed throughout history, placing special emphasis on the Museum's Collection.

The work of Juan Gris (1887-1927) has often been considered secondary and derivative; this video is a response to such affirmations. Through a visit to the room dedicated to him at Museo Reina Sofía, the work of this painter is re-evaluated, showing it to be the real source of the notions of analytic and synthetic cubism, based on a conception of painting as a poetic analogy of the world.