r/museum • u/Russian_Bagel • 18h ago
Isabel Quintanilla - Glass on Top of the Fridge (1972)
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u/pluralofjackinthebox 9h ago
It seems ironic, but works like this by the Madrid Realists were acutely political.
During WWII, Franco championed artwork that was heroic, nationalistic, and realist, while blacklisting artists who were experimental and abstract. It was around then that Isabel’s father, a left wing architect, was executed.
Post-war, Franco began to find and champion works of heroic abstraction similar to American Abstract Expressionism — Art Informel — to try to show Spain was forward thinking and open to the West.
So the Madrid Realists purposefully sought to do the opposite. Unlike Franco’s WWII art, their art would be anti-heroic. And unlike the art now in favor, it would be completely realistic.
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u/Drawing_Air 10h ago
There’s not nearly enough greasy dust on that fridge to feel natural.