Solitude interrupted

This museum contains a large collection of work by Jose Luis Alexanco, who was born in Madrid in 1942. His painting Double Posture for a Running Man, dated 1967, is from a period in which the artist worked upon the idea of motion. This was to be a recurrent theme in his work, in which he delved into the hitherto unexplored possibilities of electronics and Information Technology.

Motion is one axis of this complex work entitled Solitude Interrupted, which was a milestone in Spanish experimental art. It was the result of the collaboration between Alexanco and the Basque composer, Luis de Pablo. The red figures, originally activated by air injected from below, were endowed with syncopated movement that was reminiscent of gentle breathing.

Also hanging in this room is a preparatory collage of the original idea. Although there were a number of art circles set up in Spain in the 1960s, when Spain was ruled by a dictatorship, they found it hard to function unhindered, and the country was still isolated from the art movements that were able to develop in a free environment, such as the one Alexanco encountered in London.

As a result of this interest in founding a new creative spirit, Alexanco, along with Luis de Pablo, founded the Alea group, which experimented with electronic music. With it, in 1972, they organized an artists’ gathering in Pamplona. Authorization for this misunderstood endeavour was withdrawn by the dictatorship, while it was attacked by ETA, and even boycotted by Anti-Franco groups.

(c) (R) 2012, MUSMon com S.L.