The Alhambra, a stroll through art

Over the coming months, visitors to the Alhambra and the Generalife are going to enjoy an even greater array of cultural events to choose from. As well as the trip around the Monuments, which takes about 3 hours, visitors can also take in three different approaches to art in the exhibitions at the Palace of Charles V, ranging from Variations on the Japanese Garden in the Crypt and the Presentation Room, in which the theme proposed by exhibition curator Alicia Chillida is Contemporary Art; to the homage paid by Andalusia to the maestro Enrique Morente (1942-2010), one of Spain’s best-known Flamenco singers, with the exhibition, Universo Morente, a meeting-point at which to discuss and enjoy the fascinating work bequeathed to us by the multi-talented artist from Granada. The exhibition has benefited from the intense, passionate support of all the Morente–Carbonell family, who have been involved since the idea was first proposed. His wife Aurora Carbonell and their children, Estrella, Soleá and José Enrique, have made available to the exhibition and to the visiting public all the artworks, collections, notes and documentation that they own about the Maestro. The exhibition covers two sites, the temporary exhibition room at the Granada Fine Arts Museum on the top floor of the Palace of Charles V in the Alhambra, and the Musical Documentation Centre of Andalusia in Granada.

The Universo Morente exhibition is organized around the central theme of his recordings. Guided by his words and the chronological sequence of his albums, we embark on a journey that mixes music and images, leaving the task of reconstructing “his story” to the spectator and revealing a constellation of friends and collaborators. As one might expect, this exhibition is above all about sound. Everything has been constructed around Morente’s music. It also includes a large number of wire sculptures made by his wife Aurora after his death.

Those embarking on this stroll through the art world must not miss the exhibition entitled José Guerrero – The Presence of Black 1950-1966, on view at the Chapel of the Palace of Charles V until 6th January 2015. Scheduled to commemorate the centenary of the birth of José Guerrero (Granada, 1914-Barcelona, 1991), this exhibition is the first monographic exploration of the painter’s American years, a period that had a decisive influence on his career. The exhibition begins with his first ventures into abstract art in the form of the engravings and the experimental «portable frescos» he produced at the beginning of the 1950s (which reveal a painter who was fascinated by the idea of integrating painting into architecture); it continues with his later complete immersion into American abstract expressionism in the middle of the decade and finishes when he rediscovers his Spanish roots and returns to his home country in 1965. The exhibition also includes works from private collections and from American and Spanish museums never previously on display in Spain. The exhibition will be staged in two complementary venues: the Palace of Charles V in the Alhambra and the exhibition rooms at the José Guerrero Centre.