Movements and Sequences. Collection2 FEBRUARY 2015 – 17 MAY 2015

Human beings acquire awareness of themselves and of the world around them through their senses. Thanks to external stimuli, people discover and organise reality, and perception furnishes their awareness of that reality.

The perceptive act is ordinary and automatic, yet it is by no means simple; on the contrary, it has multiple implications. The real world isn't only what we perceive visually, but requires a continuous and convincing interpretation of the signs we receive.

When we contemplate a work of art we do not only face the compositional values of shapes, colours or matter, but also a process of aesthetic recognition that transcends mere observation.

Human beings acquire awareness of themselves and of the world around them through their senses. Thanks to external stimuli, people discover and organise reality, and perception furnishes their awareness of that reality.

The perceptive act is ordinary and automatic, yet it is by no means simple; on the contrary, it has multiple implications. The real world isn't only what we perceive visually, but requires a continuous and convincing interpretation of the signs we receive.

When we contemplate a work of art we do not only face the compositional values of shapes, colours or matter, but also a process of aesthetic recognition that transcends mere observation.

Cubism is an artistic movement in which the subject is represented simultaneously from different angles, making use of a variety of geometric shapes. By doing away with the notion of perspective and a single viewpoint, it is a radical break from the pictorial tradition of the Renaissance, entailing new ways of looking and representing the human figure, everyday objects, and something as ephemeral as movement. The technique of faceting and fragmentation is one of its key means, and consists in presenting fractioned spaces that interlock in the picture plane.

Cubism was developed by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, although it would subsequently be practiced by other artists, including the Spanish painter Juan Gris. Born in Paris during the first decade of the twentieth century, the movement spread quickly throughout European artistic circles and would influence numerous subsequent movements.

The nude is a traditional artistic genre, which, in the case of painting, were classified by themes: portrait, nude, still life and landscape. The representation of the human body has been a constant factor throughout the history of art that has changed according to the social and aesthetic values of each age, encompassing different interpretations based on mythology, religion, anatomical study or the representation of beauty and the aesthetic ideal of perfection. However, the nude did not appear as a mere portrayal of the human body, devoid of all symbolism, until the nineteenth century.

In Pablo Picasso's œuvre, the female nude is a theme that runs through different media, from painting and drawing to sculpture and prints. His reclining nudes, women in armchairs or bathers do not only refer to classical models but also, quite often, to the relationship between the artist and his model, another frequent motif in his artistic production.

According to what Larry Shiner claims in his book The Invention of Art: A Cultural History (2001), the modern concept of art only dates from the eighteenth century when an older functional idea of art was definitively split into the categories of fine art and craft. He then understands what had happened when those African masks escaped the dusty company of bowls and spears at the Field Museum to go live with the Rembrandts and Seurats at the Art Institute of Chicago. In the Field Museum, African ritual and utilitarian objects were indeed art, but in the older sense of things made for a purpose. Once transferred to the Art Institute they became (fine) art, or things meant for aesthetic looking: tokens of art itself.

One of the most significant concerns associated with the survival of 'serious' literature, music and drama throughout the twentieth century was the competition provided by popular fiction, gramophone records, radio, music, television and film. Despite the fact that the guardians of high culture tended to underrate ordinary pleasures and pastimes, which they described as 'mere entertainment', practitioners of the minor arts have unreservedly upheld the definitions of 'art' and 'artist'.

The early twentieth century was a time of great technological innovation characterised by inventions such as aeroplanes, wireless telegraphy and motor cars, that altered pre-existing spatio-temporal conception. Avant-garde artists were greatly impressed by these technological advances, which led them to explore new themes in their works. Thus, inspired by the improvements in photographic techniques and by the multiple images reproduced by the new medium of film, they sought to represent the sense of movement and its significance in the dynamic rendering of space and time. Photography, and later on film, would become new means of artistic expression.