Almost two years after Bancaja started its Joaquín Sorolla cultural project, a result of an agreement with the Hispanic Society of America to bring the Vision of Spain panels from New York, the Valencian painter’s work has managed to attract more than 1.6 million people to the different museums where it was shown, a milestone in Spain’s cultural scene.
Sorolla’s latest success took place in the exhibition held in the Prado Museum, sponsored by Bancaja. By the time the exhibition had ended, it had welcomed more than 459,000 visitors. With this figure, the retrospective exhibition containing more than one hundred of the artist’s works from all over the world, has become the most visited exhibition in the Prado in the past ten years.
Before Sorolla’s success at the Prado, the exhibition Sorolla had been travelling for two years. With Vision of Spain, organised by Bancaja, the 14 panels painted by Sorolla for the Hispanic Society of America at the start of the 20th century were shown for the first time in Spain. The works have been kept in this organisation in New York since they were created. The exhibition of this series of murals, travelling through five Spanish cities, also forming part of the retrospective exhibition of the Prado, has attracted nearly 1.2 million people, beating all records in the different places the exhibition was held.
Sorolla’s travelling exhibition with the panels from the Hispanic Society of America started off in the Bancaja Cultural Centre on 7 November 2007. It stayed until 31 March 2008 and had a total of 452,826 visitors. It became the most visited exhibition in the Valencian Community and one of the most visited exhibitions ever in Spain. After this exhibition, it was taken to the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville from 24 April to 29 June 2008 (132,292 visits), the Centre of Contemporary Art in Malaga from 19 July to 21 September (161,220 visitors), the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao between 13 October 2008 and 18 January 2009 (154,009 people) and the National Museum of Art in Catalonia from 20 February to 3 May 2009 (252,376 visitors).
Return to Valencia
After the exhibition in the Prado ended on Sunday 13 September, Bancaja began removing the pieces from the Hispanic Society of America and the Bancaja Collection and transporting them to Valencia, where the assembly work for the new exhibition dedicated to Sorolla will start soon in the Bancaja Cultural Centre. This new exhibition, which uses pieces from both collections, will be the last time the works from the Hispanic Society of America are shown in Spain, before they are returned to their usual location in New York.
Due to eagerness for the exhibition to be held, Bancaja estimates that when it is over, Sorolla’s exhibitions that involve works from the Hispanic Society will total two million visitors in its long journey throughout Spain. The exhibition Visión de España. Sorolla. In the Collections of the Hispanic Society of America and Bancaja will take place in Valencia from 1 October to 10 January 2010. Around 50 works will be on show for the public, including the regional panels of Vision of Spain, together with works that have never been seen before in Valencia from both collections such as Afternoon Sun and Sea Idyll.
Cooperation with the Hispanic Society of America
Cooperation with the Hispanic Society of America has been key throughout Bancaja’s whole exhibition project relating to Sorolla. Contact between the two organisations began in 2005 to prepare for the opening of the new Bancaja Cultural Centre in Valencia in 2007. Bancaja wanted to organise an exceptional exhibition and then the possibility of bringing the panels painted by Joaquín Sorolla for the Hispanic Society for the first time to Spain became a reality.
Following lengthy talks, characterised by a great willingness on the part of the Hispanic Society, an agreement was reached with the American museum whereby Bancaja would restore the works and the Hispanic Society would loan them to the Institution for one year, which was ultimately extended to two years.
In the same vein, the participation of the art historian Felipe Garín has been key in the academic research and approach to Sorolla’s work, the curator of the new exhibition dedicated to Sorolla opening on 1 October in Valencia.