Juan Munoz: A Retrospective At Guggenheim Bilbao

From May 27 to October 5, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao will be staging the most important retrospective exhibition in Spain of works by Juan Munoz (Madrid, 1953 – Ibiza, 2001), widely considered one of the world’s finest contemporary sculptors and installation artists.

Curated by Sheena Wagstaff -Chief Curator at Tate Modern- this exhibition is organized by Tate Modern, London, in association with the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The second floor of the museum will host the most outstanding works from Munoz’s entire career, and will include a number of extra works for the Bilbao venue, throwing new light on the complex nature of his artistic endeavors.

With a selection of nearly 80 works, including sculptures, installations, drawings, radio works and writings, the selection reveals some neglected aspects of the Madrid-born artist’s broad, innovative register. Munoz studied art in London and New York, living in both cities for a number of years after a brief period spent studying architecture in Madrid.

In the mid 1980s and early 90s, after major exhibitions all over the world, Munoz had established himself on the international art scene as one of the most important sculptors of recent decades. In Spain, however, true recognition came late, finally arriving in the year 2000, when he was awarded the country’s Premio Nacional de Artes Plasticas.

From his early architectural works—staircases, balconies and banisters—located in impossible settings, by way of his optical floors that dissolve the limits of space and time, to his dramatic, theatrical installations involving groups of human figures that evoke the solitude of the individual in society, Munoz’s works play with the spectator, enticing him into relating to them, even awaking feelings of unease and isolation. Munoz described himself as “a narrator”, and his ability to propose new forms of contemplation and thought, to create tension between the illusory and the real, made him one of the few artists capable of renewing contemporary sculpture.

For more information, visit www.guggenheim-bilbao.es

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