This exhibition presents a dialogue between artists Isidre Nonell and Francisco Goya, exploring their shared perspectives on painting and their focus on marginal and tragic subjects. It highlights Nonell's intimate works, including early portraits of Roma people and his 'fritos' drawings, set against relevant pieces from Goya's work held by the Museo Lázaro Galdiano.
The Museo Lázaro Galdiano and Colección Casacuberta Marsans present 'Isidre Nonell mirando a Goya,' an exhibition that bridges over a century between two artists united by a common vision and approach to painting. The show emphasizes their shared ethical and existential perspective, their sensitivity towards the marginalized and tragic, and their rebellion against the aesthetic and moral conventions of their respective times.
The exhibition features significant pieces from Nonell's most intimate period, including five drawings known as 'fritos' and seven oil paintings, notably his early portraits of Roma women, all part of the Colección Casacuberta Marsans. These works represent Nonell's counter-cultural proposition. Alongside these, the exhibition displays works by Goya from the Museo Lázaro Galdiano's collection, creating a literal and symbolic encounter. This juxtaposition aims to reveal 'how the echo of the Aragonese beats in the Catalan's modernity,' as noted by the museum's director and co-curator, Begoña Torres. The exhibition explores a profound connection, a silent current that conveys a way of understanding painting as a mirror of the soul, viewing humanity from its solitude, compassion, truth, and rebellion, bearing witness to a critical conscience against social hypocrisy. Nonell's unique pictorial universe, populated by uprooted and marginal characters endowed with great dignity and beauty, is presented as a reflection of a society that often rejected them.