Until 2 June, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza is dedicating for the first time a monographic exhibition to a Spanish artist, Isabel Quintanilla (1938-2017), one of the fundamental figures of contemporary realism.
The exhibition brings together 90 works from throughout her career, including her most outstanding paintings and drawings, many of which have never been seen in Spain as they are mainly in museums and collections in Germany, where she was highly acclaimed in the 1970s and 1980s. Quintanilla lived and worked at a time in Spain’s history when women artists did not have the weight and prominence enjoyed by male artists, an aspect she did not overlook in her public statements in order to vindicate the value of her work and that of her female colleagues.
Isabel Quintanilla’s painting is the result of a resounding mastery of technique and of a craft acquired in different schools, but, above all, of continuous work over time. The artist always referred to the constant struggle to solve the problems that painting poses to anyone who wants to use it to experience reality in a different way.
The selection of works proposes an evocative journey that immerses the visitor in the “Quintanilla world”, featuring her most personal objects, the intimacy of the rooms in the different homes and workshops where she lived and worked, as well as her family and colleagues. A universe in which visitors will recognise atmospheres and objects that will trigger their emotions, a goal that was always present in the author’s mind. As she herself stated on numerous occasions, painting was her life and her life was painting.
