The Valencian Institute of Modern Art (IVAM) offers its best to celebrate a special birthday, no less than 25 years. That is why, in order to commemorate the fact that this Valencian museum has been offering the best modern art in the local capital for a quarter of a century, a number of expositions have been organised for the year 2014 with the best parts of its collection. Art in its purest state to celebrate a happy birthday.
This birthday will be celebrated year-round, with 29 expositions. The first one, entitled Colección del IVAM. XXV aniversario (collection of the IVAM. 25th Anniversary), created by professor and art critic Francisco Jarauta, will be inaugurated on February 18th, the same day as the one on which the IVAM opened its doors in 1989. The 300 pieces exposed, selected from its collection of 10.909, allow you to follow the history of the museum from its very origins.
Out of the almost eleven thousand works owned by the IVAM, 6.467 correspond to donations, and in order to thank creators for their generosity, the Donaciones 2010-2014 exposition, commissioned by the former director of the museum, Tomás Llorens, has been organised. José Francisco Yvars is in charge of the exposition called Dibujos inéditos (unpublished drawings).
Fotografía de mujeres en la colección del IVAM (Women’s photography in the collection of the IVAM) will be exhibited in March, coinciding with Working Women’s Day. Other expositions include one which celebrates ephemera, entitled Frames and documents. Colección CIFO y Arte iberoamericano en la colección del IVAM (CIFO collection and Iberoamerican art in the Collection of the IVAM) as well as two other initiatives focused on the urban landscape, such as Paisaje urbano en la colección de fotografía del IVAM (Urban landscape in the Collection of the IVAM) and Ciudad Global, Ciudad Surreal (Global City, Surreal City).
The museum has also made room for new technology with Medialab by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and monographs by Rafael Calduch and Nanda Botella, as well as the permanent exhibits dedicated to Julio González, José Pinazo and Miquel Navarro.
The IVAM, also known as the Julio González Centre, has hosted innumerable expositions, some of which rank among the foremost in Spain, over this quarter of a century. Ever since its foundation, the museum has followed the main avant-gardes in the 20th century, starring a number of national and international artists. Among them, Julio González, considered to be the precursor of 20th century sculpture. Spanish artists such as Darío Villalba, Gerardo Rueda, Miquel Navarro, Juan Muñoz, Antoni Tápies, Antonio Saura, Equipo Crónica, Juan Genovés, Joan Fontcuberta or Guillermo Pérez Villalta, are but a small sample of the long list of remarkable and representative names in Spanish art that have passed through the exhibit halls of this museum.
It has also hosted works by prestigious international artists such as Georges Braque, Robert Bacon, Tony Bevan, Eva Hesse, Schwitters, Christopher Wool, James Rosenquist, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Alex Harris, Markus Lüpertz, Lee Friedlander, André Derain and, currently, the works of Jasper Johns.
