Hernando Viñes, Manuel Angeles Ortiz and Falla
On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Manuel Angeles Ortiz, we present in our gallery an exhibition titled “Un retablo para Maese Pedro”, produced by the Archivo Manuel de Falla.
This show, after being seen in our gallery, can also be visited at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid. This exhibition presents the original sketches, designs and scenographies that Manuel Angeles Ortiz, Hernando Viñes and Hermenegildo Lanz did for Manuel de Falla’s play “El retablo de Maese Pedro” (Master Peter puppet’s show), a work inspired by Don Quixote, and presented in Paris in 1923 at the Palace of the Princess of Polignac. Integrated by 52 pieces, this collection is completed with some selected documents regarding the staging of the play and the artists who made it possible.
In the case of our gallery, the exhibition is accompanied with a small but selected retrospective of the work of Manuel Angeles Ortiz. A look through his career since the decade of the fifties until the eighties, that includes pieces of his most well-known series such as Paseos de Cipreses (Cypress stroll), Albaicines, Cabezas (Heads), Cabezas multiples (Multiple heads), Homenajes a El Greco (Homage to El Greco)…a complete route through the trajectory of an artist whose work has always been important for us. We have the chance to meet him while we were preparing his first solo show in our gallery, in 1984, but unfortunately he passed way shortly before the opening.
We want to thank the Archivo Manuel de Falla as well as the family of Manuel Angeles Ortiz, especially his daughter Isabel Clara, his granddaughter Susana Davidov and her husband, Alberto Novakosky, with whom we have a close friendship, for their collaboration to make this exhibition as complete and didactic as possible. In the opening day we have been able to count with the presence of relevant members of cultural scene such as Juan Manuel Bonet, Isabel de Falla, Daniel Giralt Miracle o Antonina Rodrigo among many others.