After two years of travelling the “Visions of Spain” exhibition, the works in the Hispanic Society of America will be added to those owned by Bancaja in a new Sorolla exhibition, which will take place in the Bancaja Cultural Centre from 1 October to 28 January 2010.

Almost two years after Bancaja started its Joaquín Sorolla cultural project, a result of an agreement with the Hispanic Society of America to bring the Vision of Spain panels from New York, the Valencian painter’s work has managed to attract more than 1.6 million people to the different museums where it was shown, a milestone in Spain’s cultural scene.

Sorolla’s latest success took place in the exhibition held in the Prado Museum, sponsored by Bancaja. By the time the exhibition had ended, it had welcomed more than 459,000 visitors. With this figure, the retrospective exhibition containing more than one hundred of the artist’s works from all over the world, has become the most visited exhibition in the Prado in the past ten years.

Before Sorolla’s success at the Prado, the exhibition Sorolla had been travelling for two years. With Vision of Spain, organised by Bancaja, the 14 panels painted by Sorolla for the Hispanic Society of America at the start of the 20th century were shown for the first time in Spain. The works have been kept in this organisation in New York since they were created. The exhibition of this series of murals, travelling through five Spanish cities, also forming part of the retrospective exhibition of the Prado, has attracted nearly 1.2 million people, beating all records in the different places the exhibition was held.

Sorolla’s travelling exhibition with the panels from the Hispanic Society of America started off in the Bancaja Cultural Centre on 7 November 2007. It stayed until 31 March 2008 and had a total of 452,826 visitors. It became the most visited exhibition in the Valencian Community and one of the most visited exhibitions ever in Spain. After this exhibition, it was taken to the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville from 24 April to 29 June 2008 (132,292 visits), the Centre of Contemporary Art in Malaga from 19 July to 21 September (161,220 visitors), the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao between 13 October 2008 and 18 January 2009 (154,009 people) and the National Museum of Art in Catalonia from 20 February to 3 May 2009 (252,376 visitors).

The exhibition of this series of murals, travelling through five Spanish cities, also forming part of the retrospective exhibition of the Prado, has attracted nearly 1.2 million people, beating all records in the different places the exhibition was held.

Return to Valencia

After the exhibition in the Prado ended on Sunday 13 September, Bancaja began removing the pieces from the Hispanic Society of America and the Bancaja Collection and transporting them to Valencia, where the assembly work for the new exhibition dedicated to Sorolla has already started in the Bancaja Cultural Centre. This new exhibition, which uses pieces from both collections, will be the last time the works from the Hispanic Society of America are shown in Spain, before they are returned to their usual location in New York.

Around 50 works will be on show for the public, including the regional panels of Vision of Spain, together with works that have never been seen before in Valencia from both collections such as Afternoon Sun and Sea Idyll.

The tip

The entrance is free, and the queue is usually very long so we recommend you to book the entrance on the official website. The booking can only be made on Thursdays at 12 pm.

Useful info

”Vision de España. Sorolla.” / 1 October – 28 January 2010 / Free entrance

• http://obrasocial.bancaja.es
• Centro Cultural Bancaja/ Plaza de Tetuán, 23 , Valencia.
• Phone: (+34) 902 336 644

Related Posts

• Takashi Murakami in Valencia, the Japanese Andy Warhol (0)
• 28 Galleries at the VALENCIA.ART fair (0)
• Rodin’s masterpiece “The Thinker” visits Valencia (0)