The traces of Altamira

Visions of Francisco Chamorro, Irene Grau, José Santocildes, María Jesús Manzanares and Lolo Zapico.

With the discovery of the cave paintings of Altamira in 1879, Paleolithic parietal art gradually became a source of great academic and artistic interest. Successively, new discoveries flooded the artistic panorama with new manifestations and forms of representation: the Cave of Lascaux, the Cave of El Castillo, the Cave of Combarelles, the Cave of Chauvet...

Bison, earth tones, horses, ochre, deer, hunters, terracottas... were the main motifs that humans decided to represent in the shelter of their homes. Whether as instruction for hunting, as mere decorations or for devotion. To make these paintings they used the most elementary pigments: iron oxides for reddish and ochre; charcoal or animal charcoal for black. As for techniques, there are as many as there are representations themselves, whether by addition, such as plastering, blowing, plain ink, or by subtraction, such as engraving and relief. In addition to being especially revealing is the play with the undulations of the surface, as in Altamira, providing texture and support to the artistic representation itself. In short, colors, drawing and naturalism are the formal aspects that define cave art.

As their study progressed and deepened, more exponents became known and new discoveries were transferred to the world. These representations began to be covered with a halo of purity, a feeling of essentiality and elementality. Many artists of the 20th century considered these manifestations as the First Art, the origin. While the isms of the avant-garde were being formed, fleeing from academicism and mimicry, these trends found in prehistoric art a source of inspiration, since they sought to escape from everything known through their art. And for this very reason, they found in cave art everything they longed for: novelty and at the same time elementariness. The techniques used in the caves and shelters revealed themselves to be extraordinarily modern, bringing together in them the dichotomy that defined 20th century art: figuration and abstraction.

Contemporary art allows us to capture a new vision of nature and the reality in which human beings find themselves, departing from the concepts of essentiality and primitivism in which cave art has been involved.

This exhibition invites visitors to learn about the origins of interest in Paleolithic parietal art and delve into the intricacies of the work of Francisco Chamorro, Irene Grau, José Santocildes, María Jesús Manzanares and Lolo Zapico who, using a wide variety of techniques, explore the relationship between art and nature, art and prehistory...

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