Atlas: How to carry the world on one’s back

From 25 Nov 2010 to 27 Mar 2011

26 November - 28 March 2011. The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte presents an exhibition dedicated to the Greek mythological legend of Atlas, the titan who bore the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Atlas subsequently gave his name to a mountain, an ocean, an architectural form but his name is most often associated with a gathering of geographical maps in a volume which came to prominence in the 18th century and was developed considerably in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Imagery from the world's most famous atlases is on show including Aby Warburg's unfinished Mnemosyne Atlas compiled between 1924 and 1929 which remains a valuable reference for today's artists and art historians.