The other Meninas

The Other Meninas has come about as a project of the "Woman Together" Association. The goal of this group is to expand knowledge about the menina figure through art, while also increasing social awareness of the feminine condition, since the artists are contributing with their work to the World Fund for Micro-loans.

The exhibit organizer, Rosa Perales, highlights that the collection explores the evolution of this cultural landmark through art, while attempting to transform our social conscience about femaleness, understood in its historical and social context throughout the ages. This is the basis for the menina figure.

The aim of the organizers is to show how an image that has maintained its traditional aspects can also be modified to achieve equality and social respect that had been denied to women.

A MODERN REVISION OF LAS MENINAS (THE MAIDS OF HONOR) BY VELÁZQUEZ, A CULTURAL SYMBOL.

Las Meninas by Velázquez represents a cultural symbol for generations of artists who held it as an aesthetic model. Moreover, the menina is also a figure belonging to a social sphere, subject to strict protocol in the role of female companion, lady of distance, silence, obedience, etc.; in short, a figure that did not act. These attributes describe the ladies of baroque society as distant icons, removed from vital decisions.

In our time, baroque is underpinned with irony. Its art has been de-sanctified , although the aesthetic values of beauty, irregularity and ephemera have remained. The exhibit’s thirty-six artists focus on this type of revision of Velázquez’ baroque.

The historical importance of the Las Meninas painting makes it necessary to revise the figure of the menina and to add social awareness to this piece of history. Thirty-six artists have developed this figure artistically, many highly recognized and distinguished names in art, and also young new artists who embody the emerging tendencies, which stimulate curiosity among the public and capture their attention.

AN ARTISTIC PROJECT WITH SOCIAL ENDS

Basically, the idea is to contribute to education about the myth of the menina through contemporary art. At the same time, it provides a meeting-ground for artists of different generations around one theme, employing the aesthetic and technical aspects from all the fields of art. The exhibit is also designed to promote contemporary art by opening new lines of communication towards other cultural projects, and to awaken social awareness of the World Fund for Micro-Loans, for developing communities. Hopefully, a cultural avenue will be broadened to foster understanding between peoples.

RENOWNED ARTISTS TOGETHER WITH NEW VALUES

The exhibit strives to provide a complete view of the menina figure, through the diverse perspectives of 36 artists, representing different languages, different artistic styles and techniques and different generations. In the area of painting, the exhibit claims contributions from the following artists: Alfonso Alzamora (Barcelona, 1951): He deals with the geometric form, since the square and the definition of feminine intertwine themselves exceptionally in his work, Menina 2000-2001 (2001). Eduardo Arroyo (Madrid, 1937): Irony is evident in the title of his piece, Captain tattooed with Menina (2001), preserving the values of the timeless icon. Ángel Baltazar (Madrid, 1955): With his piece, The Distressed Menina (1983-2001) he recalls a previous period, tied to Spain of the 1980’s, when he did the painting that he now rescues and brightens up for the exhibit. Jesús Canovas (Madrid, 1963): With The Firefly Menina (2001), he investigates the renewal of pictorial language, making use of an industrial spray to show us the profile of the infanta Margarita framed in a rectangle. Rafols Casamada (Barcelona, 1923): In Pigments Crepuscular, he recreates the atmosphere, the particulae, the haze that made Velázquez one of the only painters capable of drawing the invisible. Ricard Chiang (Barcelona, 1966): His piece, Las Monigotas (2001), uses references to Velázquez to recreate a very unique universe, making use of light and shade and inserting himself, just like Velázquez, into the painting. Paco Espinosa (Palma de Mallorca, 1969): In his reticular mural, Las Meninas (2001), he re-constructs the social backdrop and the thoughts of Velázquez’ characters. Josep Guinovart (Barcelona, 1943): a painter of depths, in his piece, Menina Mirall (2001), he creates a multiplying effect that intensifies the unreal appearance of the figure of the menina. Robert Llimós (Barcelona, 1943): in Version (2002), he makes a figure arise from the light that is over the characters in Velázquez’ Las Meninas, creating a metaphor for death. Oscar Mariné (Madrid, 1951): The artist tries to show us an escapist Menina in his piece, No Title (2002), one which flees her prior condition of subdued woman. Santiago Picatoste (Palma de Mallorca, 1971): In his Las Meninas (link) (2001), he offers a mixed media painting on canvas that supposes a vision of the meninas filtered by memory which, in the end, reflects the superposing of ideas ranging from urban to graffiti.
Bernadí Roig (Palma de Mallorca, 1965): This artist lifts the menina out of her ashes, combining complexity and simplicity and using charcoal sketches to make Head of Menina (2001), graffiti on paper. Sineu (Palma de Mallorca, 1965): In Las Meninas de Sineu (2001), two pieces done in acrylic on canvas; the artist proposes art as a method of knowing spiritual reality, thus, renewing the spirit of Velázquez. José María Subirachs (Barcelona, 1927): In Menina (2001), he breaks the Velázquez universe into pieces to later recompose time and the elements. Manolo Valdés (Valencia, 1951): This artist has made the figure of the menina into an emblem of the twentieth century with his Menina (2001), rescuing it from its forgotten place to search out the femininity that forms part of our human nature. Pepe Vilaplana (Huelva, 1954): He has created a mixed media piece on linen, S.A.R., doña Margarita Teresa (2001), a tribute to all the artists who could not achieve popularity, represented by the painter José Nieto, portrayed in this painting as a silhouette, behind the infanta, against the light.

Using a myriad of formats, the sculptors provide a perspective on the menina which, while totally new, possesses a great deal of baroque. The contributors are as follows: Olga Andrino (Ávila, 1959): In her Meninas (2001), she shows a social reality of the oppressed woman using cubic fragments, in broken bodily form, as a warning of the reality which in and of itself, is a grave social injustice. Jeroni Bosch (Palma de Mallorca, 1975): In María Antonieta (2001), this artist frames the infanta of Las Meninas in an iron metal rectangle, attempting to be an adapted reflection of Velázquez’ painting. María Victoria Encinas (Madrid, 1962): With the piece Reciprocity (2001), the artist takes on the idea of Foucault in his text, Las Meninas: the possibility of constructing an artistic object in real space, in stead of illusionary space. Pep Guerrero (Mallorca, 1966): Making total use of landscape painting and the colorful objects of industrial design that surround us, the artist has re-dressed the characters of Velázquez in their own iconographic motifs, to create Meninas (2001). Miguel Inglés (Murcia, 1964): In his piece, The Metal of the Light (2001), the artist uses glass to turn the complex baroque fabrics into an iridescent world of colors and crystalline shapes. Manuel Frutos Llamazares (León, 1935): He wanted to offer the reverse of the Velázquez painting, using the technique of low relief to create a pictorial perspective in his piece, Versions of Las Meninas (2001). Pilar Molinos (Badajoz): Suffering Souls, (2001). She offers a dialogue in favor of oppressed women, constructed from titles of her prior artistic works. Ángel Muriel (Cáceres, 1948): Meninas (2001). Using a mixed technique, the artist uses a tragicomic "ecclectic polyptic" that resembles the structure of an altarpiece of the sixteenth century, music composition by Adolfo Núñez. Dora Salazar (Alsasua, 1963): Menina (2001). This work is made of knitted copper threads, reflecting volumes that attempt to redefine the menina. Miguel Sansón (Cáceres, 1961): He reflects the other side of the menina, the face, beautiful and full of color, that the infanta Margarita recovers, once stripped of the weight of baroque. Pedro Txillida (San Sebastián, 1952): Through the use of steel, the artist gives form to the values that the concept of woman encompasses, ones which men have not allowed to come to light. His sculpture, S/T, (2001), portrays a fragile, yet resilient woman, delicate and kind. Javier de Villota (Madrid, 1944): Into the Beyond with Las Meninas (2001). The artist strives for balance and harmony, a geometrical assimilation of Velázquez’ painting, through the use of laser beams and smoke devices. Pepe Yagües (Murcia, 1968): In the installation, S/T, The artist investigates the concept of freedom, using the baroque farthingale of the menina.

Photography, employing the latest techniques together with a revamped concept of the menina and it original supports, also shows the figure of the menina in a timeless, yet new light. Photographers participating in the exhibit are as follows: Patricia Allende (Madrid, 1954): The Gaze of the Menina (2001). In this photograph, the artist tries to show that the external appearance of a constant may change, while its essence, contained perhaps in her gaze, does not. Ramón Caimari (Palma de Mallorca, 1975): In Meninas for a Few Hours (2001) he fastens the dream universe of the smallest girls, the meninas, onto new and different supports. Ouke Lele (Madrid, 1957): In S/T (2001) the artist shows us a menina that has dialogue with her mirror, asking about her own existence. Paloma Navares (Burgos, 1947): She presents A Velázquez. Meninas (2001), in which there is a menina with a contemporary filter, a menina smashed by the weight that transforms her into a ghostlike figure, lacking identity, just as the original baroque one. Alberto Schommer (Vitoria, 1928): In his piece, Levitation of the Infanta (2001), the artist expresses the sensation of zero gravity that the Velázquez painting produces, and thus, the infanta is made to float. Montserrat Soto (Barcelona): A photographer of open spaces, she has done two pieces for the occasion, using mirrors and plays on light and shadow. The main protagonist is the space itself created in the piece S/T (2001). Rafael Timoner (Menorca, 1964): This is a photographer who, using a digital image on canvas and etched methacrylate, creates Portrait of the Infanta Margarita of Austria and Cuba (2001). The piece symbolizes the reconnection between Cuban culture and folklore and the history of Spain.