The Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, who chaired the plenary session, thanked "the commitment to cooperation and collaboration" of all the national and international public bodies and cultural entities involved in the commemoration.
• The extensive program of activities, coordinated by the Sorolla Museum and the Sorolla Foundation, includes more than 30 exhibitions in different parts of Spain and in countries such as Denmark, the United States and Italy.
• Valencia, the painter's hometown, will concentrate various exhibitions in spaces such as the Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia, which will show 'Sorolla. Origins' in collaboration with the Sorolla Museum
• The cultural program of the anniversary, declared an Event of Exceptional Public Interest until December 31, 2024, is open to the incorporation of new activities.
In its first constitutive meeting, the National Commission for the commemoration of the centenary of the death of Joaquín Sorolla, has approved the program of activities '100 years of the death of Joaquín Sorolla'. The Minister for Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, who presided over the event held at the Sorolla Museum, stressed that "just like Sorolla, he was enormously recognised, honored and awarded while alive as the brilliant painter and tireless worker he was, is today our duty, one hundred years after his death, to pay him the tribute he deserves”.
In this sense, Iceta has thanked "the commitment to cooperation and collaboration" of all public organizations and cultural entities, national and international, involved in the event.
The National Commission, whose creation was approved by the Council of Ministers on January 17, is an inter-ministerial collegiate body for the commemoration that will serve as an instrument to promote the activities of the event. Meeting today in plenary session and the Executive Commission, it was represented by the General State Administration, the Ministry of Finance and Public Function, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Union and Cooperation, the Ministry of Territorial Policy, the State Company of Cultural Action, the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Fine Arts and the General Sub-directorate of Museums of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, as well as the management of the Sorolla Museum.
On behalf of other public administrations, members of the Generalitat Valenciana, the Community of Madrid, the Valencia Provincial Council, the Valencia City Council and the Madrid City Council attended. Likewise, the Sorolla Museum Foundation has been represented and members of recognized prestige and representatives of institutions related to the study of the life and work of the painter have been appointed.
The National Commission has approved the program of cultural activities, with the purpose of contributing to deepen the knowledge of the work and the figure of Joaquín Sorolla and increase its appreciation among society in general. For this reason, this anniversary has been declared an Event of Exceptional Public Interest until December 31, 2024. In this way, the cultural programming that is presented today is open to the incorporation of new activities. In addition, it has given its approval to the manual for the graphic identity and use of the Centenary logo.
More than 30 temporary exhibitions throughout the territory
As reported by Enrique Varela, director of the Sorolla Museum, a state-owned museum under the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the organization and production of temporary exhibitions is configured as the cornerstone of '100 years since the death of Joaquín Sorolla', an ambitious program with more than 30 confirmed exhibitions to date, in relevant national and international institutions, coordinated by the Sorolla Museum and the Sorolla Foundation.
In fact, the Sorolla Museum and the Sorolla Museum Foundation are the stars of a large part of the programming and have been the first to kick off these celebrations with the recent inauguration of two exhibitions: 'Sorolla. Origins', organized in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia, where it will be shown, addresses the first stage of the painter's training; and the exhibition 'Sorolla is dead! Long live Sorolla!' It reviews the last years of his life and the multiple post-mortem awards he received.
In April the new exhibition 'Joaquín Sorolla facing the sea, by Manuel Vicent' will arrive at the Sorolla Museum. It is a literary curatorship where Sorolla's painting will coexist with Vicent's literature. The writer -qualified as 'the Sorolla of Spanish letters'- makes a selection of the work contained in the collections of the Sorolla Museum and draws, in parallel, a literary story about the painter and his aesthetic and moral attitude towards the sea.
Beyond its Madrid headquarters, the collections of the Sorolla Museum and the Sorolla Museum Foundation will travel to their places of natural production through the original exhibition project vo ‘Sorolla. Travel to paint. A total of six confirmed venues will honor the great painter and indefatigable traveler: San Sebastián, Toledo, Valladolid, Seville, A Coruña and Mallorca.
Starting on February 17, the capital will also host the exhibition 'Sorolla through light' at the Royal Palace, an unprecedented exhibition format that combines original works by the painter, with sensory and virtual reality rooms. The exhibition is organized by National Heritage, the Sorolla Museum Foundation and Light Art Exhibitions. Subsequently, it will travel to Valencia in the second half of the year and, foreseeably, to other venues in 2024.
International program: Denmark, Italy, United States…
The Centennial celebration also extends internationally. In April, 'Joaquín Sorolla, Light in Movement' will be inaugurated at the Glyptotek in Copenhagen. In this exhibition, Sorolla's works from his House Museum will dialogue with contemporary Spanish creators from different generations such as Soledad Sevilla, Miquel Barceló, Juan Uslé or Belén Rodríguez. In Rome, the Royal Academy of Spain will host the exhibition 'Hunting impressions, Sorolla in small format'. In the United States, the Meadows Museum in Dallas will open the exhibition 'Spanish light: Sorolla and American collectors', curated by Blanca Pons-Sorolla. For its part, the Hispanic Society Museum and Library, in collaboration with The National Arts Club of New York, exhibits in 'A Masterpiece in the making' the gouaches of the Vision of Spain.
Publications, music and social action
The programming is completed with a plan of scientific publications made up of more than a dozen titles of varied formats: a catalog raisonné, the unpublished correspondence with his wife or the manuscript of the critic José Manaut from 1923. In addition, various meetings will be held scientific, congresses and presentations, in Spanish institutions and universities.
Music and audiovisual productions will also have a place in this Centenary, with activities that will bring Sorolla to all citizens as a tribute. Proof of this is also the issuance of special National Lottery tickets, a commemorative stamp in collaboration with the Post Office or a series of three coins issued by the Royal Mint.
Likewise, various social action programs will take Sorolla's work to schools, hospitals and specialized centers, as well as to rural areas of different regions thanks to the traveling exhibition 'Sorolla. Ambulatory Art' of the Cultura en Vena Foundation.
After the approval of the program of activities by the National Commission, the specific website for the Centenary will be launched, aimed at promoting and updating all the programming, as well as compiling all the news related to it: www.centenariosorolla.es
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