The Alhambra that inspired Ángel Barrios

The Alhambra is paying homage to Ángel Barrios (1882-1964), a composer, musician and guitarist from Granada, with an exhibition in the Temporary Exhibition Room in the Granada Fine Arts Museum (in the Palace of Charles V), which will trace the life and work of this multitalented artist.
The exhibition entitled Ángel Barrios. Creatividad en la Alhambra (Ángel Barrios Creativity in the Alhambra) is being staged to mark the 50th anniversary of the musician’s death. It is curated by the Director of the Musical Documentation Centre of Andalusia, Reynaldo Fernández Manzano, and is jointly organized by this institution and by the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife. It will be divided into four sections which will each offer different perspectives of the composer. It will also dedicate a special section to the Alhambra in its role as a source of musical inspiration for the artist.
From 1886 to 1934, the Barrios family lived in the Calle Real de la Alhambra, the palace-city’s main street, near the baths of the mosque, where they ran a tavern that was popular with artists, painters, poets, literati, musicians and intellectuals, which explains the musician’s close links with the Alhambra.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue with various articles by specialists in the different fields that made up the universe that was Ángel Barrios and his creativity in the Alhambra.
The exhibition will have almost 100 pieces and will be open to the public from 12 June from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Monday to Sunday. The pieces have been loaned by various institutions including the Ángel Barrios Collection (conserved by the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife and the Musical Documentation Centre of Andalusia), the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Sorolla Museum, the Granada Fine Arts Museum, the Museum of Romanticism and the National Library.