Hernán Cortes: Retrospective Exhibition Exploring Portraiture and Structural Identity

This exhibition is a retrospective of the work of Hernán Cortes, a prominent Spanish portraitist. It examines his artistic trajectory through a structural lens, delving into his profound meditations on human identity, shared experiences, and uniqueness. The show features around 130 works, including paintings and photographs documenting his creative process.

The exhibition 'Cortés. Retrato y estructura' showcases the extensive work of Hernán Cortes, a celebrated Spanish painter renowned for his portraiture. Curated by art historian Lola Jiménez Blanco, the exhibition reviews the artist's career not strictly chronologically, but from a structural perspective, analyzing his contributions and the artistic challenges he tackles in each canvas. Cortes's work is described as a deep meditation on what makes us who we are, what we share, and what makes us unique, using painting as his primary medium with prodigious technique and sensitivity. The show features approximately 130 works, including notable portraits of prominent figures from Spanish cultural, political, economic, and social life over the last decades, such as Dámaso Alonso, Rafael Alberti, Severo Ochoa, Felipe González, and Norman Foster, as well as photographic documentation of his process by María Bisbal. Beyond portraiture, the exhibition also explores Cortes's engagement with landscape, particularly his intimate connection to the Bay of Cadiz. This personal experience informs his strong sense of spatial structure, evident in his paintings of the bay, its structures, and maritime elements. His visual language is deeply influenced by contemporary abstraction and historical art, characterized by a profound understanding of geometry and the use of 'the void' and orthogonal structures. The exhibition highlights his exploration of vertical elements, seen in various works and studies, which serve as a counterpoint to the dominant horizontality of the Cadiz landscape, a recurring motif throughout his oeuvre.

The exhibition is open Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 20:00, and Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays from 11:00 to 20:00. Commented tours are available on specific days and times, with a schedule change effective September 17th. Further information on guided tours can be found via the provided link.