Tag: Museu Fundación Juan March

Another eye-catching artwork in the Museu Fundación Juan March.

Josep Guinovart was a Spanish abstract painter, who is known in Palma by many as the creator of some of the artworks at the Parc de la Mar. This painting was created in 1963 and is apparently in honour of Joan Salvat-Papasseit, a Spanish (or Catalan) poet and political writer.

The artist remembered the poet by gluing a bicycle wheel onto the canvas and throwing some paint around. I’m sure that it’s a piece of creative brilliance and I like how engaged the artist must have been with regards to this work. But, goodness knows what Sister Wendy Beckett would have thought about this, although I’m sure that she would have been entirely polite about it.

This is one of the artworks at the Museu Fundación Juan March. It’s “Pintura, Mujer al Sol” or “Painting, Woman in Front of the Sun”. Painted in 1950 by Joan Miro and there is also a museum of his artworks and sculptures in Palma.

I quite like this artwork as it’s colourful and bright, but I’ve been reading some analysis of the painting and there seem to be multiple interpretations as to what it means or represents. So, no-one seems to know, although the marvellous Philadelphia Museum of Art also have a similarly named artwork by Miro. Although, they’ve decided not to display it….

This modern art gallery is named after Juan March Ordinas, who lived from 1880 and 1962 and was the wealthiest man in Spain. A bit like Gordon and Old Catton. And this gallery is beautiful in terms of its design, functionality and efficiency, it’s clear that a lot of money has been spent on it.

The art gallery is located in a sixteenth century residential building.

One of the artworks visible in the courtyard.

I’ll have to be honest. I didn’t understand most of the artworks in this gallery, although I liked how accessible they were and some were interesting. I’ll post about some of the artworks separately, but there were many that I found were difficult to get a hold of in terms of their context and what the artist was trying to say.

I mean, what does the above really say? This is the “Rising Figure” lump of metal by Andreu Alfaro. I don’t deny that it is quite probably brilliant, but I don’t have the knowledge or understanding to be able to explain it.

“The Room” by Guillermo Perez Villalta. It’s an interesting artwork, but it’s another one that I don’t really understand.

“Black Painting” by Eva Lootz. I have no idea.

I did like this gallery, and some of the artworks were intriguing, but I’d have liked some greater explanation on the information panels to give me a greater context on what was going on. It’s easy to write off modern art, which is a huge genre, but to make it accessible it’d be good for there to be more background on what an artwork is trying to say. Unless it’s not trying to say anything, which is intriguing in itself…

The gallery is free of charge and centrally located in Palma, so the family has offered a wonderful gift to the community in allowing such access to these artworks.