ACCIONA sponsors the exhibition “Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces of the Prado” in Australia

The art show will be open to the public from 21 July to 4 November at Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane.

ACCIONA, a Benefactor Member of Madrid's Prado Museum, is sponsoring the exhibition, "Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces of the Prado", at Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia. The art show is made up of around 100 Prado Museum works synthesizing Spain's history and Spanish art from the 16th Century up to the start of the 20th C. It will be open to the public from 21 July to 4 November.

ACCIONA's sponsorship of the show comes as part of its support as a Benefactor Member of the Prado's international exhibitions program aiming to inform the world about Spanish culture. As one of the Prado international program exhibitions, the event allows ACCIONA to play the role of a unique ambassador for Spanish culture in Australia, a country where the Company has a longstanding presence in the infrastructure, renewable energy and water management sectors.

Through three large sections, the exhibition consists of a chronicle of Spanish painting, highlighting its political and social characteristics and artistic development. The first part coincides politically with the Antiguo Régimen and from the cultural viewpoint what was known as the Spanish Golden Age; the second period begins with the final quarter of the 18th Century and the first half of the 19th C., a 'critical' period with important changes in mentalities, political organization and social relationships; the third era dealt with by the exhibition features the last 50 years of the 19th C., when modern Spain is held to have been born.

The most important artists have been selected for each epoch: El Greco, Ribera, Zurbarán, Velázquez, Murillo, Paret, Van der Hamen, Meléndez, Goya, Vicente López, Federico de Madrazo, Rosales, Fortuny and Sorolla, as well as foreign artists who worked in Spain or directly influenced its painting, such as Titian, Antonis Mor and Rubens. The most representative themes of each age have also been chosen so that visitors to the exhibition can get to know, as well as the stylistic progression of Spanish painting, how interests changed over time and the iconographic dominion of art expanded.

The Prado by Francesco Jodice

As a complement to the exhibition, Queensland Art Gallery also wanted to establish a tacit relationship between its visitors and those to the Prado Museum by including, in the display area, project by Italian Artist Francesco Jodice, The Prado by Francesco Jodice, which was shown at the Prado from October 2011 to January 2012, likewise with the help of ACCIONA.

The video installation, Spectaculum Spectatoris, will project on a wall opposite the entrance to "Portrait of Spain". With the projection of this 'photography in movement', recorded in HD, the artist wishes to capture the memory of the presence of over 400 visitors to the Prado as they made their way randomly to the focus of their interest. Similarly, the second element of the Jodice project, a film of five minutes, will be projected on a screen by "La Sala del Prado"- a large room built around the exhibition inviting visitors to enter into the history and culture of Spain. The film reflects the daily relationship between the 'people of the Prado' and its collections.

La Sala del Prado

The exhibition public will be invited to experience the diversity of the history and culture of Spain in the lounge-like Sala del Prado space. This large area includes a café - the Sala Café - which offers Spanish cuisine and mini tapas for children, as well as a large number of interactive supports for discovering the broad-ranging themes of the exhibition and the intricacies of Spanish history. The space will also be a relaxation area, featuring live Spanish guitar recitals.