Over 7000 people visit Owen Jones and the Alhambra exhibition in its first week

Over 7000 people have already visited the exhibition Owen Jones and the Alhambra: Islamic design, discovery and vision, in the Granada Museum of Fine Arts temporary exhibition room in the Palace of Carlos V, since it was inaugurated on Friday 21 October last. The exhibition, which runs until 28 February next, is organised by Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife (PAG) and the Victoria and Albert Museum and honours English architect and traveller Owen Jones (1809-1874), a key figure in 19th century design reform.
According to information from the PAG Sustainability Laboratory, 98% of visitors were individual tourists, 49% from the European Union, followed by 33% of Spaniards and 17% from the rest of the world. Most had third-level studies and were “very happy” with the exhibition.
Owen Jones and the Alhambra: Islamic design, discovery and vision was commissioned by University of Granada History of Architecture Professor, Juan Calatrava, in association with V&A curators Mariam Roser-Owen and Abraham Thomas, based on a V&A exhibit, and aims to “contribute not only to the study of Jones himself, but also to the understanding of the important role played by the Alhambra in the work of many contemporary artists and architects”.
The exhibition features over 140 objects, including original travel sketches, from the V&A; plaster casts taken by Jones of Alhambra decorative plasterwork; two large watercolours, dating to 1851 and executed as preliminary designs for London’s Great Exhibition, and on show for the first time in Spain; and a model of the Hall of the Two Sisters, made by the Contreras family of architects.
Entry to the exhibition is free and there is a programme of guided tours aimed at schools, associations and other groups (for further information, please visit the PAG offices at Corral del Carbón, calle Mariana Pineda s/n or call 958 57 51 26).