Picasso, Kandinsky and Dalí show their fascination with nature in the new CaixaForum

“An exhibition to show the beauty of nature, with flowers, with fish, but also a cry of alarm to say that nature is a miracle and that we must protect it.” This is how Angela Lampe, curator of the French Pompidou Centre, defined this Wednesday morning the exhibition that the French art gallery has brought to the Aragonese capital and that already fills the CaixaForum Zaragoza with colours, trees and fish in a dialogue between art and nature. Five Picassos, a Dalí, a Kandinsky or a Le Corbusier show the magnitude of an exhibition that houses a total of 76 works in a journey through the art of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. The exhibition can be seen from this Thursday until October 27 in Zaragoza .

The name leaves no room for imagination, and “Art and Nature. A Century of Biomorphism” is precisely that, a dialogue and the way in which the medium has fascinated some of the most important artists in the history of universal painting. Here you can see some well-known works such as “The Sea Worms” by Kandinsky or “The Woman with a Hat” by Picasso, but also new visions of art such as the audiovisual installation that closes the exhibition. The English artist Jeremy Deller allows the viewer to enter a cave where there are tens of thousands of bats that aim to reflect the fear we have of a new virus, taking into account that it was these animals that caused Covid .

The exhibition is divided into four areas: “Metamorphosis”, “Mimicry”, “Creation” and “Threat”. It is the bronze sculpture Métamorphose (1940) by Henry Laurens that opens this first section, in which we see men transformed into trees, flowers and a transformation between being and animal with paintings such as “The Rotten Ass” by Dali. “We see how artists have used the force of nature as another product to inspire themselves,” explained Angela Lampe.

The imitation of structure, form and the principles that govern movement are the raison d’être of “Mimetismo”. Two of the most important works of the 1930s can be seen there: “Bleu de ciel”, “Crisálida”, “Trente” or “Los gusanos marinos”. In this sense, a very interesting part of the exhibition is the installation of interactive screens and totems that scientifically explain natural processes, for example, the transition from a chrysalis to a butterfly or the camouflage of a stick insect. This is thanks to the CaixaForum mediation project that aims to combine culture and science.

The exhibition includes other works that are striking for their message, such as that of an Italian artist who created a structure based on the letters she sent to the different environmental ministries around the world, asking for the protection of the planet and nature in the face of problems with natural disasters, etc. “The letters remain closed, which is an example of the fact that no one pays attention to these problems,” says the curator.

The Pompidou Centre is one of the leading art galleries in contemporary art and is landing for the first time in the Aragonese capital with this exhibition. At the same time, the CaixaForum Zaragoza is immersed in the celebration of its tenth anniversary.