The exhibition ‘Women in the Zuloaga Collection. Seven centuries of art’, organized by the City Council and the Zuloaga Foundation, opens to the public at the Mirador del Carmen.

The exhibition, comprising 120 works from the collection of the Spanish painter’s family, offers for the first time a social and iconographic history of European women from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Along with a significant number of works signed by Ignacio Zuloaga, other works by renowned artists such as El Greco, Zurbarán, Maxime Dethomas, Goya, Toulouse-Lautrec, Eugène Carrière, or Émile Bernand are exhibited.

The exhibition ‘Women in the Zuloaga Collection. Seven centuries of art’, organized by the Estepona City Council and the Zuloaga Foundation, was presented today at the Mirador del Carmen Exhibition Center. The exhibition, made up of 120 works of art belonging to the Zuloaga family collection, offers for the first time a social and iconographic history of European women from the Middle Ages to the present day. Seven centuries of a surprising story of progress and setbacks that will help to understand the reality of women today.

The mayor of Estepona, José María García Urbano, thanked the Zuloaga Foundation for “the specialized work it has been developing and the creation of a unique exhibition that will not leave anyone indifferent because of its attractive discourse”. In this sense, the councilor stressed that the exhibition “is configured as a great opportunity to make a historical journey through the contribution that women have been making to the history of art, both in its creation and its conservation, through high quality pieces signed by important artists”. García Urbano has pointed out that this exhibition, which will be open to the public from tomorrow Saturday, contributes to the consolidation of the Mirador del Carmen as an exhibition space of national reference, a facility that will soon house a large seven-storey library and, from September, the new Conservatory of Music in Estepona.

For its part, the curator of the exhibition, Margarita Ruyra, stressed that the exhibition presents an exhibition discourse that premieres in this room with two novelties. On the one hand, it is a discourse made for this space. “We are opening for the first time with paintings from what we call the Cube room, where Gothic painting and the 16th and 17th centuries are represented, and where artists such as Zurbarán and El Greco, among others, are shown. At the same time we offer a tour of other rooms with the thematic exhibition that covers many aspects of women’s lives”.

The other novelty, added Ruyra, is that it shows a selection of works from a collection of artists more than two centuries old, so what has been done is to choose works that have to do with the life of women and arrange them thematically.

The exhibition is made up of a selection of more than 120 works of art that have been collected by the Zuloaga family of artists since the first third of the 19th century, highlighting the significant number of them signed by the painter Ignacio Zuloaga; his father, the damascene artist Plácido; and his uncle, the ceramist Daniel. The exhibition includes oil paintings, ceramics, damascene pieces, sculptures, lithographs and engravings, and drawings.

Among these works there are a large number signed by Ignacio Zuloaga, but there are also other outstanding names such as El Greco, Zurbarán, Maxime Dethomas, Goya, Ricardo Baroja y Nessi (brother of the novelist Pío Baroja), Toulouse-Lautrec, Eugène Carrière, or Émile Bernard. In total, up to 55 artists are represented (not counting the works of anonymous artists).

The research and dissemination of women’s social history has not kept pace with the popularity of women’s demands. The academic literature has been experiencing centuries-long gaps, even in the developed European historiography. This exhibition offers a surprising history of advances and setbacks that contributes to understanding the current state of women today.

With the aim of representing the social diversity of women, themes are contrasted: the female life cycle from birth to death, virgins and saints, rural and urban women, the marginal and the privileged, in the public and private spheres. Of special relevance is the genre of the female nude, so late and scarcely represented in Spanish art.

Another novelty is the presentation of the Zuloaga Collection, with an emphasis on the women who preserved, expanded and disseminated it. For if there are numerous writings about the artists, no attention has been paid to the women of the family, without whose contributions this collection would be impossible. For this reason, some of the women’s collections are also included, which contribute to an understanding of their tastes.

The exhibition, which can be visited until September 29, is one hundred percent bilingual in Spanish and English in the videos, catalogs and posters. Those registered in Estepona will be able to visit it free of charge. The exhibition can be visited from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10.00 to 14.00 hours and from 16.00 to 20.00 hours.