The Mariano Yera collection is one of the most important collections of Spanish painting of the last century, comparable only to those of the great museums. The quality of the works gathered is the result of 23 years of work in the field with the determined intention of supporting painting in its most progressive postulates.

This exhibition is not presented as a chronological succession but as a superposition of maps in which each painting is situated. The works are not arranged in succession by date, they are confronted with their referents or successors so that the spectator can understand how the genealogical links of Spanish art are woven beyond conventional historiographical lines. In this way it is possible to understand how some artists turn out to be decisive over time even if they are not
necessarily have been so at the historical moment in which they correspond.

The collection has internal dynamics beyond temporal succession. One work does not directly follow another, not even when we are talking about two pieces by the same artist, but sometimes an artist does continue the line taken by another artist before him. It is not difficult to find, within this genealogical idea, a reason for the existence of certain forms that go from Miquel Barceló or Juan Uslé to Rubén Guerrero, for example, or it is not difficult to draw a diagonal that goes from Palazuelo to Equipo 57 and ends at FOD, for the moment. This idea is as old as the postulates of the first moments of development of the Kunstwissenschaft. We are talking about the need to understand, from the History of Art, the development of artistic forms from the knowledge of the social and cultural conditions of the artist. There is no creation without context and any strictly formalist approach to a work of art is deficient.

Exhibition curated by Carolina Parra and Nacho Ruiz.

About the collection

The collection was started by Mariano Yera in 1999. In 2013, Natalia Yera agreed to direct the destiny of this family treasure. Since then, its curators have been Rosina Gómez-Baeza and Lucía Ybarra. Today, the collection has one hundred and ninety-two works by ninety-four artists, growing and taking on new challenges with the incorporation of works by Spanish artists who are representative of the poetics -always in dialogue- between figuration and abstraction, following the line drawn from the beginning. Additionally, there is a professional team that rigorously supports the restoration work led by Ana Iruretagoyena, as well as the registration and documentation led by Laura Ramírez Palacio.