Caneja

10 May28 Aug 2005. In this major retrospective, the Reina Sofa Arts Centre pays homage to painter Juan Manuel Daz Caneja, a key name in Spanish art for much of the 20th century. Daz Caneja captured the tone of the inter-war years as well as Francos dictatorship, conveying the bitterness, exile and misery and in the process become an icon of resistance. Drawing inspiration from the maestro Vzquez, Daz Caneja painted still-lifes and landscapes until his arrival in Madrid, where he joined the famous school of Vallecas. At this point, his paintings became more conceptual, at times abstract. Eventually exiled to Paris, Daz Caneja would then rub shoulders with surrealists, where he pushed his work to the limits of abstract art, with quasi-geometrical compositions. This retrospective traces the evolution of his paintings that placed Daz Caneja at the avant-garde of Spanish art.

Admission: 3, Students: 1.50, Free entry: Sat from 14.30, Sun., children, pensioners, unemployed

Mon-Sat 10.00-21.00, Sun 10.00-14.30, closed Tuesday.