The new installment of MACE Focus, subtitled ‘Visitable warehouse’, offers the viewer an artistic journey that travels between “modern tradition and territories of freedom.” The note does it Elena Ruiz Sastrethe director of the Contemporary Art Museum of Ibiza (MACE), during the opening of the exhibition, which brings together a selection of the works that the entity has recently received, either via acquisition or through donation or deposit.
In a part of the exhibition that houses the Sala de Armas, those pieces are arranged that navigate between continuity and rupture and in which you can still appreciate the artists’ interest in seeking beauty. This section corresponds to a dozen works by Elmyr de Hory, one of the greatest forgers of works of art of the 20th century and a character closely linked to Ibiza from 1961 until his death in 1976. Two urban landscapes that correspond to his early period draw attention, which he signs, with some small variation, with his real name, Elemér Hoffmann. There are also “false Picassos, Modiglianis, Duffys and Matisses.” All these paintings, explains Ruiz, “are part of the batch of works that he donated to the Amics MACE association Jose Luis Brangera passionate Elmyr de Hory art collector,” who passed away last January.
The sixth edition of MACE Focus includes an abstract painting in blue dating from 1972 and which is also indirectly linked to this well-known forger, since he created it Edith Sommerthe wife of the writer Clifford Irving, author of the book ‘Fake!’, about Elmyr de Hory.
Along with this acrylic, donated by Pepe Roselló to Amics MACE, there is a watercolor of Heinz Trökes from 1953 that represents Sa Punta des Molí, very close to the place where the artist settled when he arrived in Ibiza in the mid-20th century. In this work, Ruiz highlights as a curiosity, the German artist uses a black marker, “which began to be marketed in the 50s of the last century.”
The works of the forger Elmyr de Hory. / Vicent Marí
In addition to Trökes, this exhibition features creations by other founding members ofl Grupo Ibiza 59 like Bertil Sjöberg. By this Swedish painter, three of the four paintings that his son Miguel Sjöberg has donated to MACE are shown. These are three paintings from the 60s titled ‘Tanit de Ibiza’, ‘Juno’ and ‘Cornfield’.
Nearby is a pastel work by another member of the Ibiza 59 Group, Katja Meirowsky, an artist who is also the protagonist of the first individual exhibition of the ‘Han vingut uns amics’ project, which is taking place at Casa Broner.
Precisely in MACE Focus VI there are two works of Gisela Broner, whose role as an artist is little known, despite the fact that she “identified herself as a painter in several of her passports.” The two oil paintings on cardboard that can be seen in the Weapons Room are still lifes reminiscent of the style of Paul Cézanne.
Tribute to ‘Portmany’
There is also space in this part of the sample for the ‘White Queen’, by Isabel Echarri, made largely of newspaper. The sculpture dialogues with ‘Chess Game’, another work by the Navarrese artist who died in 2022 in Formentera.
Right on the border between the two artistic territories marked by the exhibition, is the work of Antoni María Ribas Portmany, who, as Ruiz points out, “masterfully combines the nineteenth-century figurative tradition with the gestural touch of informalism.” On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his death, MACE wanted to pay tribute to the brilliant cartoonist by exhibiting fourteen works in Chinese ink on paper from the 1960s, donated by his nephew Jaume Marí Torres. “These works are added to the 16 drawings by Portmany that are permanently exhibited in the museum,” says the director.
Placed in a display case, heading the second part of the exhibition, which contains more groundbreaking proposals, are a series of ceramic pieces from Barry Flanagan. They are works molded with hands on which you can see their fingerprints. Elena Ruiz describes them as “true jewels” because they are from the last period of the British sculptor, who died in Santa Eulària in 2009. The pieces were donated by his widow, Jessica Sturgess, present at the inauguration. Known for its statues of dancing hares, this animal is represented in these clay pieces and in one of Flanagan’s engravings that are exhibited in another display case as a donation from Enrique Juncosa. Sturgess points out two other works by the British in which he portrays the faces of his children Alfred and Annabelle.
Elena Ruiz, Irene de Andrés and Adrian Martínez. / Vicent Marí
Next to Flanagan’s ceramics is a large sculpture of Marcel Floris, with whom he held a large joint exhibition at the MACE in 1992. The work, which is reminiscent of a weather vane and is titled ‘Sato’, was donated by the author to the museum in 1998 and was until recently on Bartomeu Avenue in Roselló. MACE has restored it to include it in this exhibition.
A few meters away there is a stool placed to be able to observe several holograms of Rubén Núñez in all their splendor. It is not the only work by the Venezuelan artist that is exhibited, there is also an engraving that also plays with optical effects. They are all donations Branger made to Amics MACE.
Likewise, the exhibition includes a small engraving attributed to Victor Vasarely and several works made with this same technique by Susy Gómez donated by Juncosa. In addition, the piece ‘The ball of life’ is on display, which was part of the exhibition dedicated to the Mallorcan artist that was held at MACE in 2017.
The new generations of artists from the Balearic Islands also have a space in this exhibition, where you can see the work ‘Axonometrics’, made on carbon paper by Stella Rahola Matutes, who donated it to the museum. MACE Focus VI, which It can be visited until next May 19also includes one of the Ibizan’s latest works Adrian Martinez, who is exploring new supports for his work. Specifically, this piece, made at the end of 2023 and acquired by the Ibizan museum, is made on Mallorcan sheep wool. As the author himself explains, who did not want to miss the inauguration, it is a «collage felting in which they talk, among other things, about sustainability, landscape and drawing” with that touch of humor and irony typical in their projects.
Both Rahola and Martínez, remembers Elena Ruiz, were part of the ‘Teoria de l’Alegria’ exhibition with which MACE celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2020, as was the artist Irene de Andrés, who is also present at the inauguration, this time as a guest.
2024-02-18 05:22:15
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