Isabel Quintanilla's intimate realism

Free entrance on Saturdays from 9pm to 11pm, thanks to a collaboration with Uniqlo

For the first time, the temporary exhibition hall at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum is hosting a monographic exhibition devoted to this Madrid artist, one of the key figures of contemporary Spanish realism. The exhibition can be seen from 27 February to 2 June 2024.

The exhibition features around one hundred works spanning her entire career, including her most important paintings and drawings, many of which have never previously been seen in Spain as they are principally housed in museums and collections in Germany, a country where she was widely recognised in the 1970s and 1980s.

The selection of works on display offers a fascinating journey that delves into the “world of Quintanilla”, featuring her most personal possessions, the intimacy of the rooms and spaces in the different homes and studios where she lived and worked, as well as her family and friends. It is a universe in which visitors will recognise settings and objects that will trigger their emotions, which was one of the artist’s constant aims.

Isabel Quintanilla’s painting is the result of an absolute mastery of the technique and skill acquired at different art schools but, above all, an ongoing working process.

Image Credits:

• Isabel Quintanilla. Rome (The Red Building) Oil on Canvas, 78 × 108 cm. Private Collection, Madrid © Isabel Quintanilla. VEGAP, Madrid, 2024. Photographer Credit Jonas Bel
• Isabel Quintanilla. Window with Rain, 1970. Oil on Canvas, 52.5 × 65 cm. Private Collection © Isabel Quintanilla. VEGAP, Madrid, 2024
• Isabel Quintanilla. Garden, 1966. Oil on panel, 122× 217 cm. Private collection © Isabel Quintanilla. VEGAP, Madrid, 2024
• Isabel Quintanilla. Rome, 1998-1999. Oil on canvas affixed to panel, 135 × 220 cm. Galerie Brockstedt, Berlín. © Isabel Quintanilla. VEGAP, Madrid, 2024
• Isabel Quintanilla, Homage to my Mother, 1971. Oil on panel. 74 x 100 cm. Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen. Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich ©bpk / Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen