Museo Carmen Thyssen

This exhibition, organised in collaboration with the MACA, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Alicante, presents in Malaga the work of one of the most outstanding Spanish women artists of the second half of the twentieth century: Juana Francés (Alicante, 1924−Madrid, 1990). The Alicante-born painter, the only female member and founder of the El Paso group, was a tireless explorer who moved interchangeably between Art Informel and figurative art.

This intimate retrospective aims to lend visibility to her extensive and estimable artistic career, condensed in a single room: a relentless personal search based around graphic signs and matter. The realms and scale of Art Informel are largely found in intimacy, and we have attempted to reflect this axiom in the display by showing Juana Francés’s most original works, those which celebrate the physical and spiritual qualities of painting.

In addition to being an early practitioner of gestural and matter painting in Spain, Juana Francés explored figurative art in the 1960s and 1970s. During this period, she imagined a universe of isolated figures whose gazes challenge the viewer in paintings with undercurrents of social criticism and a deep existential pessimism.

This period of reflection on the human condition was followed by a return to Art Informel in the early 1980s, with the so-called ‘bottom of the sea’ and ‘comet’ pictures executed in a style close to lyrical abstraction. The movement of comets in the air and the vibration of light reflected on the seabed are the subject of these works. In this last period, Juana Francés proved to be an extraordinary colourist (in contrast to the monochromatic nature of her initial production).

The works of Juana Francés, an artist ahead of her time and of unquestionable originality, quality and importance, display a notable fondness for texture and mastery of colour, and are a faithful reflection of her interest in experimentation. This exhibition sets out to grant this outstanding artist the place of honour she rightfully deserves. 

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Juana Francés, Composition no. 39, 1959, mixed media and earth on canvas, 73,3 x 92 x 2,5 cm
Colección Juana Francés. MACA. Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Alicante
Juana Francés, Untitled. Bottom of the Sea series, 1985, gouache on paper, 70 x 99,5 cm
Colección Juana Francés. MACA. Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Alicante

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