Time, in capital letters, has been and will be one of the great questions of human life—and also of death, if we consider its apparent and definitive absence. And I have used the term ‘questions’ with complete intention because it represents an authentic and transcendent question: What is time? Precisely that question is what ‘The Tyranny of Cronus’, an exhibition recently inaugurated in the exhibition halls, also asks. of the Bank of Spain. But before entering into it, I would like to raise a reflection that I have been thinking for some time as an art critic, regarding the relevance of certain exhibition projects. Are they right? Do they provide something new or necessary? That same doubt assails me when I contemplate this one. Related news standard No The portraits of the Kings by Annie Leibovitz: Don Felipe, as Captain General, and Doña Letizia, by Balenciaga Angie Calero standard Yes Leibovitz charged 137,000 euros: the intrahistory of a royal portrait Angie CaleroLet’s go in parts. It is a proposal that revolves, as I just pointed out, around Time and the polysemy of its representative and conceptual perspectives. Its starting point is a splendid Flemish tapestry, property of the Bank of Spain, like the vast majority of the works on display, called ‘Triumph of Love and Eternity over Time’, a work from 1684 made by Jan Leyniers, according to a design by David Teniers III. From there it is conceptually configured through different issues related to the linear representation of time in modernity, its connection with productivity, with other non-Western cultures and, obviously, with the field of art itself. In turn, it is divided into three sections: ‘I don’t have time’, ‘Portraits on the thread of time’ and ‘A time without a clock’. The first focuses – something unfortunately very contemporary – on the overwhelming feeling that time has abandoned us, enslaves us and is transformed into a disturbing presence-absence. Here I would highlight the works of Isidoro Valcárcel Medina, Mladen Stilinovic or Candida Höfer. How time flies! From top to bottom, ‘Diario virico’ (2020), by Inmaculada Salinas; ”Imagined Place No. 2′ (2022), by Ángel Poyón; and portrait of Doña Letizia, by Annie Leibovitz ABCThe second section is in my opinion the most confusing and the least relevant, although paradoxically it is the fundamental justification of the exhibition project. I am referring to the space in which the portraits of the Kings of Spain recently taken by the North American photographer Annie Leibovitz are displayed. Although I do not think this is the opportunity to focus on its critical evaluation, another new doubt arises: Are there not magnificent artistic photography professionals in our country who could also have carried out this assignment? On the other hand, the presence of time in this chapter is well represented by a wide variety of clocks from the bank’s collection. As a complement, in some splendid cases, such as Goya’s portraits, different paintings by other directors of the institution are exhibited. Too much ‘totuum revolutum’. Finally, the last block tries to express the different possibilities of temporal measurement outside of its linear and consecutive logic. It is a more poetic, we would say more human, view of conceiving and feeling time, and capturing it with registers that are not so much mechanical as sensitive. There are some notable pieces such as those by Javier Núñez Gasco, Antonio Pichillá or Inmaculada Salinas. ‘La Tiranía de Cronos’ Colectiva. Exhibition Hall of the Bank of Spain. Madrid. C/ Alcalá, 48. Commissioner: Yolanda Romero. Until March 29, 2025. Two starsIn short, an exhibition that, yes, offers works and artists of undeniable quality but at the ‘same time’ – never better said… – offers a thesis and some rather forced approaches, and what is even worse, unnecessary. Why not simply present the royal portraits without so much temporal paraphernalia? They had already earned the popular applause from the start…
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