Rusiñol, passion for Mallorca

Es Baluard Museu d’Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma, in collaboration with the Balearic Government's Ministry of Education and Culture, presents the exhibition “Rusiñol, the passion for Mallorca. From luminism and symbolism to the Japanese print”, curated by Isabel Coll, becoming another of the events of the Rusiñol Year 2006-2007, which commemorates the seventy-fifth anniversary of the death of this great painter and writer.

The name of the island of Mallorca is indissolubly linked to the memory of interesting, outstanding figures, both those born on Mallorcan soil and the numerous and sublime foreign personages the island has received at different stages in history. Indisputably one of these figures is the painter and man of letters Santiago Rusiñol (Barcelona, 1861 – Aranjuez, 1931) who, on his very first trip to the island ― in spring of 1893 ― discovered in this luminous land the possibility of taking personal notes in which the vibration of light became a central element. Rusiñol was captivated by the island of Mallorca on seeing the diversity of the inspirations it offered him, a wealth he expressed not so much in pictorial terms as from a literary point of view, through articles published in La Almudaina and La Vanguardia, in which he took pleasure in all the positive, surprising things to be found on the island.

Nine years later Rusiñol returned to Mallorca. On this occasion he started expressing all the fascination the island held for him with his brushes: the calmness of its landscapes, the ancient delicacy of the patios, the sadness of the waters, the silence of the valleys, the power of the ancient stones, the cheerful blossoms.

The exhibition we present, “Rusiñol, passion for Mallorca. From luminism and symbolism to the Japanese print”, will embrace different periods that refer to Santiago Rusiñol's relationship with the island; a first, brief space of time, two months in the year 1893. Naturally the period from 1901 to 1907 will be represented, the most important years for the painter with regard to his relationship with the island. His subsequent stays on Mallorca will also be dealt with, periods the artist would alternate with spells of time spent in other places. Years of shared passion, but with the island always present in his thoughts.

The aim of this exhibition was to show two entirely different aspects of the painting of Rusiñol in Mallorca: one is the use of the Japanese print, with solutions far removed from the academic procedure, a fact which is united to his will to follow the European fashion schools ― such as luminism and symbolism, among others ― without forgetting to touch on the parallelisms of his work with symbolist poetry and painting. Neither did Rusiñol cease to capture, with his intelligent gaze, the valiant forms of working with painting, such as those of Mir and Degouve de Nuncques, among others; a host of aspects that meant he would manage, through his curiosity and intelligence, to construct eminently personal works.

Location-Hall: Floor -1
Production: Es Baluard Museu d’Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma with the collaboration of the Balearic Government's Ministry of Education and Culture