Helena Almeida: 'Seduzir' [To Seduce, 2002] (detail)

Collection

Tapia del estudio de Urola [Wall of the Urola Studio]

Image caption
ISABEL QUINTANILLA

Tapia del estudio de Urola [Wall of the Urola Studio]

  • 1969
  • Oil on board (plywood reinforced with cross brace frame)
  • 100 x 70 cm
  • Cat. P_313
  • Acquired in 1985
By:
Julián Gállego Serrano, María José Alonso

The artist here captures a fragment of nature taken from her immediate surroundings, in this case around the studio in the El Viso neighbourhood of Madrid that she set up with her husband shortly after returning from Italy, which she shared with her husband, the drawer and sculptor Francisco López, and with the architect Rafael Moneo. The importance of the theme lies merely in the setting of the intrinsic values of what is observed and providing a new interpretation of the subject. It is based on the mystery of the light that envelops the subject and on its visual assessment as it is reflected, transmitted or diffused, and on the incidental from taken by the physical structure, creating a new, real setting. Light is always a great challenge in her work because it changes, in the same way that nature is mutable and fleeting, seen through the ornamental plant or the bare sticks rising up behind the wall. This assessment of light is conducted using the refraction index of the colours and the glazes employed, with a narrow range of hues in the struggle between light and colour, where the artist adopts an objective stance based on the balance which any artistic creation must generate. Furthermore, stability is provided by the angle of view from which she addresses her models, which is always diagonal and from above; by her excellent technique and by her great knowledge of her painting materials: she assures good chemical compatibility that enables colours to remain unchanged. The work, painted in 1969, belonged to Italian author Giovanni Testori.

 
By:
Roberto Díaz
Isabel Quintanilla
Madrid 1938 - Brunete (Madrid) 2017

Quintanilla was one of the leading figures of Spanish figurative painting from the 1970s on and belonged to a generation of artists known as the ‘Madrid Realists’. In 1953 she joined the San Fernando School of Fine Arts, where her fellow students included the painters Antonio López, Amalia Avia and María Moreno and the sculptor Francisco López, whom she married. Together, they embraced the challenge of going against the boom in informalist abstract art to seek, each from their personal stance, their own understanding of realism. Quintanilla was noted for clear, intimate poetics based on her everyday life. Gardens, still-lifes, nooks, corners, interiors and household items were the main subjects of her paintings and drawings, alternating with urban landscapes from the cities where she lived, all addressed from an attentive, calm perception of reality with the study of natural or artificial light as a fundamental aspect. In 1960 she was awarded a grant as a drawing assistant at the Beatriz Galindo High School and that same year she and her husband moved to Rome, where they lived for four years. Her views of the city produced at that time were important and she went back to them in the 1990s. Back in Madrid, she graduated in Fine Arts from the Complutense University in 1982.

Isabel Quintanilla’s work has had a strong international presence, especially in Italy, where her first show was at Caltanissetta (Palermo, 1963); and in Germany, where her work was exhibited in galleries in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich, mainly in the 1970s. She also featured in group exhibitions on Spanish realism at venues including the Kunsthalle (Baden-Baden, Germany, 1976), the Hamburg Kunstverein und Kunsthaus (Hamburg, Germany, 1978), as well as in France and the United States. Quintanilla also took part in events such as Documenta 6 (Kassel, Germany, 1977). Her work was regularly exhibited in Spain in galleries in Madrid and Seville, with a particularly noteworthy retrospective at the Conde Duque Cultural Centre (Madrid, 1996). She also took part in group exhibitions at the Reina Sofía (Madrid, 1987) and the Prado (Madrid, 2007 & 2013), and in ‘Realists’, recently shown at the Patio Herreriano Museum (Valladolid, 2016) and ‘Madrid Realists’ at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (Madrid, 2016).

Roberto Díaz

 
«Isabel Quintanilla», Galerie Brockstedt (Hamburg, 1987). «Spanish Nature (1940-1987)», Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. MNCARS (Madrid, 1987-1988). «Spanish Nature (1940-1987)», Museo de Albacete (Albacete, 1988). «Spanish Nature (1940-1987)», La Casa de la Caritat. CCCB (Barcelona, 1988). «Spanish Nature (1940-1987)», Sales de Ateneu Mercantil (Valencia, 1988). «Spanish Nature (1940-1987)», Museo Regional de Bellas Artes de Asturias (Oviedo, 1988). «Isabel Quintanilla: Anthological Exhibition», Centro Cultural Conde Duque (Madrid, 1996). «From Reality: 4 Contemporary Spanish Artists», Academia Española de Historia, Arqueología y Bellas Artes de Roma (Rome, 1996). «Contemporary Art from Spain», European Central Bank (Frankfurt, 2001-2002). «Im Licht der Wirklichkeit – Zeitgenössischer Realismus in Spanien», Panorama Museum (Bad Frankenhausen, 2007). «The Madrid Realists», Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza (Madrid, 2016). «Isabel Quintanilla's intimate realism», Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza (Madrid, 2024).
Ana Vázquez de Parga & Francisco Calvo Serraller Naturalezas españolas (1940-1987), Madrid, Zaragoza, Barcelona, Albacete, Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Comunitat Valenciana y Ministerio de Cultura, 1987. Vv.Aa. Isabel Quintanilla, Ölbilder 1955-1987, Hamburg, Galerie Brockstedt, 1987. Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, Julián Gállego & María José Alonso Colección de pintura del Banco de España, Madrid, Banco de España, 1988. Vv.Aa. Desde la realidad. Cuatro artistas españoles contemporáneos / Dalla realtà. Quattro Artisti Spagnoli, Rome, Academia Española de Historia, Arqueología y Bellas Artes, 1996. José María Viñuela Contemporary Art from Spain, Frankfurt, European Central Bank, 2001-2002. Vv.Aa. Realistas de Madrid, Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemizsa, 2016. Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, vol. 3.