José María Cruz Novillo, a key figure in rebranding democratic Spain, dies aged 89
Cruz Novillo created some of the most iconic logos of recent decades for Spanish public and private bodies. The Banco de España commissioned him to design the penultimate series of peseta banknotes prior to the introduction of the euro. The bank’s collection also contains two works by the artist, a sculpture (‘Untitled’ [1976]) and a painting (‘Diaphragm One. Phase Four’ [1993]). Cruz Novillo also had a prodigious career designing film posters.
Art as witness and agent: the impact of social change on the visual imagery of the 1920s and 1930s
A tour of some of the pictures and sculptures from the Banco de España Collection on display in 'Allegories of What is to Come', exploring the relationship between art, labour and nation-building and highlighting Art Deco’s important role as an embodiment of modernist values. Featured items include work by Joaquín Sorolla, Benjamín Palencia, José Gutiérrez Solana and José de Olivares.
Stained glass panels by Maumejean Hermanos, one of the most iconic sets of twentieth-century institutional Art Deco in Europe
A selection of the original drawings, sketches and cartoons of the panels is now on show in 'Allegories of What is to Come'. The exhibition focuses on the enlargement of the Banco de España's head offices on Plaza Cibeles in the 1930s (a key episode in the institution's history) and explore some of the contradictions of an age in which modernism was seen as a promised land over which different groups fought for ownership. Due to its popular success, the exhibition run has been extended until 30 May.
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