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Joaquín Sorolla
Valencia, 1863-Cercedilla, Madrid, 1923
1893
Oil on canvas, 103.5 x 125.5 cm
Contributed by the City Council of Bilbao in 1913
Joaquín Sorolla’s artistic beginnings are connected to the academicism prevailing in Spain in the late nineteenth century. In 1879 he trained at the Academy of San Carlos in Valencia and from there moved to Madrid in 1881, where he discovered the oeuvre of Velázquez, which made a deep impression on him. Having obtained a grant he was able to settle in Rome during the first months of 1885, and subsequently moved to Paris, where he would be greatly influenced by the artistic avant-garde. During the decade of 1890 he produced genre paintings and works that focused on social criticism, followed by experiments based on the predominance of flat light that distanced him from Impressionist painters and earned him international acclaim, especially with his beach scenes. Sorolla’s career was confirmed in Madrid, where he settled in 1890. Kissing the Relic belongs to a period in which his own personal style was beginning to evolve, bringing together his past experience and achieving notable successes: a third-class medal at the Parisian Salon, the same distinction at the 4th International Salon in Vienna in 1894 and then a first medal at the Exhibition of Spanish Art in Bilbao. During this period Sorolla based his compositions on his skill as a draughtsman, his meticulous descriptions and wise use of light and colour in genre scenes (some of them anecdotal) connected to bourgeois taste. In this work a procession of faithful is reverently awaiting to kiss the relic held by the parish priest in a side chapel of the San Pablo church in Valencia. This act of veneration marks the end of the mass and is the opportunity taken by an altar boy to sell religious pictures—the scene is therefore a fine example of genre painting. [J.N.G]
Francisco Regueiro (Valladolid, 1934)
Diez películas en treinta años y casi los veinte últimos sin dirigir, son datos lo suficientemente explícitos para poder afirmar con muy escasas posibilidades de error que la carrera de Regueiro no podría calificarse precisamente de cómoda y confortable.
Perteneciente a esas –escasas–generaciones de la EOC (Escuela Oficial de Cine) que, tras muchos años de grandes dificultades para integrarse en la industria, pudieron hacerlo casi en bloque gracias a la legislación proteccionista de García Escudero, fue rápidamente incorporado a la nómina de lo que se denominaría nuevo cine español en su vertiente mesetaria. Pero el vallisoletano Regueiro ni resulta fácil de etiquetar ni se encuentra cómodo diluido dentro de los grupos, por lo que la carrera de este futbolista, caricaturista y pintor fue adquiriendo progresivamente una mayor singularidad. Y respecto a su trabajo como director, podemos constatar que si los calificativos de insólito e inusual se adecuan perfectamente a su cine, conviene recordar que su obra pasó por diferentes etapas, en ocasiones contradictorias, coincidiendo su mayor madurez como cineasta con su ultima época, la etapa en la que Ángel Fernández Santos trabajaba con él como guionista.
Es muy frecuente en la actualidad encontrar cineastas sin nada que decir que tratan de seguir haciendo cine. No es ése el caso de Regueiro, cuya obra –quizá debido en gran parte a su escasez–da siempre la sensación de que aún puede depararnos alguna sorpresa.
Antonio Castro
Sponsored by METRO BILBAO

Proyection from 10|08|10 to 11|20|10
Proyection timeline for this week:
The Cinemateque has a fixed programme that is projected in the Museum auditorium twice daily on Fridays and Saturdays.
Entrance is not permitted to the Auditorium once the projection has begun.
For additional information download the programme.

12|03|10 • 12|18|10
TATI (Jacques Tatischeff), actor y realizador francés (Le Pecq. 1907-París, 1982). Sus antepasados so... 
11|22|10 • 11|27|10
The cinematheque of the museum will be one of the venues of the 52nd Edition of the ZINEBI, International Festival of Documentary an... 
10|08|10 • 11|20|10
Francisco Regueiro (Valladolid, 1934)
Diez películas en treinta años y casi los veinte últimos sin dirigir, son datos lo sufi... 
08|13|10 • 10|01|10
Films by Jørgen Leth stand out for their formal simplicity and lack of narrative. In his revindication of the naive appearance of Br... 
05|28|10 • 08|07|10
En su primer largo Los 400 golpes relata su autobiografía, la vida de un niño desamparado en el personaje de Antoine Doinel... 