'Arte en la época del infierno' by Juan José Lahuerta
Siza BarroqueConference
'Arte en la época del infierno' by Juan José Lahuerta Siza BarroqueConference
May 18, 2024, Saturday, 5pm, Soares dos Reis Museum Auditorium
The conference 'Arte en la época del infierno' by Juan José Lahuerta, professor of Art History at the Escola Técnica Superior de Arquitectura in Barcelona, will take place on Saturday, May 18, at 5pm, in the Auditorium of the Soares dos Reis National Museum, as part of the 'Siza Barroco' program.
We tend to think, according to the well-established principle of causality, that the events of the past influence the present, which, applied to Art History, would only highlight the authority that the masters of the past exert over later artists. In this lecture we will argue that, on the contrary, it is the present that influences the past, acting retroactively on it. We will therefore try to reveal this interested retroactivity of art and architecture, particularly “modern” art and architecture, which, in order to assert - precisely - their paradoxical modernity, have invoked all kinds of memorable origins and built all kinds of genealogies. Origins as prestigious as they are uncertain - as apparently noble as they are conveniently imaginary - suspended in a Time without time and a History without history. The “theory of suspicion” will be our beginning. And Benjamin's affirmation of modernity as “the time from hell” will be our motto.
Juan José Lahuerta is Professor of Art History at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura in Barcelona. He has taught at universities such as the IUAV in Venice and New York University, among others. He was curator of the Picasso Museum in Barcelona and head of collections at the National Art Museum of Catalonia. His latest books include Religious Painting. Picasso and Max Von Moos (2015); Marginalia. Aby Warburg, Carl Einstein (2015); Photography or Life: Popular Mies (2015); On Loos, Ornament, and Crime (2015); Antoni Gaudí. Fuego y cenizas (2016) and Arte en la época del infierno (2022). He has curated exhibitions such as Picasso. Románico (MNAC, Barcelona, in collaboration with the Musée Picasso, Paris, 2015); Gaudí (MNAC, Barcelona and Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 2022) and Julio González. Being an Artist (IVAM, Valencia, 2023). He is a member of the scientific board of Casabella (Milan) and founding director of the Mudito & Co publishing house (Barcelona, New York, Venice).
Conference in Spanish
Duration: 60 min.
Auditorium of the Soares dos Reis National MuseumFree entry HERE
Scientific Research and Technological Development Project on the Architecture of Álvaro Siza Vieira FCT: SIZA/CPT/0021/2019
Funded by: FCT, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education; Ministry of Culture; FAUP; CEAU.
Supported by: Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis; Fundação de Serralves; Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian; CCA; Drawing Matter; Casa da Arquitectura; Fundação Marques da Silva, Irmandade dos Clérigos and Conservatório de Música do Porto.