La Costa de Mallorca, interpretada pels nostres il·lustradors. Una col·laboració al voltant de la col·lecció d’art modern d’Es Baluard

The coast of Mallorca, interpreted by our illustrators. A contribution based on Es Baluard’s modern art collection

The landscapes of Mallorca, and, of course, its coast, have been portrayed on countless occasions by artists of all kinds. George Sand, whose travel notebook Un hiver à Majorque, published in 1842, was issued in instalments in La Revue des Deux Mondes literary magazine in 1841, and the team of researchers and illustrators that Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria relied upon to create his Die Balearen encyclopaedia (1869-1891) revealed the reality of the island, its landscape and the historical and cultural patrimony of the time.

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, an influential group of landscape painters discovered the light and colour of the island, and captured it on their canvasses. Antoni Ribas, Antoni Gelabert, Ricard Anckermann, Hermen Anglada-Camarasa, Joaquim Mir, Santiago Rusiñol and Joaquín Sorolla conveyed to us an unspoilt and paradisiacal Mallorca. The watercolours of the Austrian artist Erwin Hubert –who arrived on the island in 1904 to serve as personal secretary to Archduke Ludwig Salvator– showed wonderfully idyllic landscapes that were reproduced on popular picture postcards and illustrative sheets and subsequently used by Balearic institutions such as the Mallorca Tourist Board on posters, leaflets and advertising publications to promote national and international tourism for the island.

At the end of 2016, the Clúster de Còmic i Nous Media de Mallorca, the organisation made up of professionals from the world of comics and illustration from the island, presented the book La Costa de Mallorca, interpretada pels nostres il·lustradors. This publication paid tribute to these creators and the documental work of the artists. Now in Es Baluard, this exhibition brings together all the original artwork of the book, in the same room that exhibits the paintings of these classic authors. Gonzalo Aeneas,  Ata, Jaume Balaguer, Gabi Beltrán, Canizales, Joan Escandell, Álex Fito, Pepmi Garau, Flavia Gargiulo, Pere Joan, Linhart, Enriqueta Llorca, Marta Masana, Joan Miquel Morey, Tomeu Pinya, Feliu Renom, Juan Roig, Saeta, Bartolomé Seguí, Tatúm, Nívola Uyá, Rafel Vaquer and Margalida Vinyes reflect the new reality of the island, at this moment in time when mass tourism forces us more than ever to reconsider the model to follow if we want to preserve our historical identity and our own unique landscape.