The Barjola Museum is a center open to culture, a space where contemporary art meets with always relevant exhibitions of current artists. Thanks to a studied programming The weight of renowned authors is combined with the emerging and always rich universe of new figures. Usually, at least on the ground floor, the predilection for avant-garde sculpture, although in the museum there is a careful balance with the plastic and photography, also with video installations and new artistic expressions. A balance to which the influence of Juan Barjola, whose paintings, powerful in chromatic charge and vitality, grant the rooms the necessary touch of an immortal work. The pacense artist himself gives name to the museum.
Under the pictorial umbrella of this great artist, the Barjola Museum always sets the bar very high for its exhibitions, and in its work to boost art in the Principality grants solvent scholarships and shows exquisite care in their publications. An editorial reference for many other similar centers and that we will find in your assortment artistic library, that well deserves a separate visit.
The headquarters of the center is one of the maximum exponents of the Baroque architecture in Gijón. It was completed in the year 1676 and is known since ancient times as the Conjunto de la Trinidad (Historic Artistic Monument). The property is currently owned by Cajastur and consists of two architectural units: the House-Palace of the Jove-Huergo and the Chapel of the Trinity. The Baroque façade, the Jove's shield and the belfry stand out on the façade.
Three are the plants destined for exhibition since the 16 of December of 1988, thanks to the impulse of the Government of the Principality of Asturias and from a donation of the painter Juan Barjola, opened its doors as contemporary art center. Inside contrast the open and modern spaces of the building annexed to the chapel with the structure of the temple itself, which has been respected in its integrity and often serves as the central room for the most relevant pieces of each temporary exhibition. In the chapel, its vault and apse stand out, with a dome on pendentives, decorated with reliefs depicting the four Evangelists.
In 1985, the painter Juan Barjola made two donations to the Principality of Asturias; one to the Museum of Fine Arts and another to the museum that bears his name. In 1987 he is named Adopted Son of Asturias and in 1994 Adopted Son of Gijón. The donation comprises 104 works dated between 1950 and 1988. In the museum that bears his name can be seen a permanent exhibition of some of his works, through the most representative thematic sets of his career: bullfighting, maternity, suburbs, erotic themes, heads and skulls, dogs ... in a style that evolves from purely abstract plastic to expressionism. His paintings often contain dramatic, ironic and sarcastic meanings that usually derive in the field of the surreal. Their social commitment is reflected in the attempt to witness the scourges of society: war, misery, suburbs, political and social oppression.
Barjola Museum Hours
From Tuesday to Saturday: Mornings 11:30 a.m. to 13:30 p.m. and afternoons from 17:00 p.m. to 20:00 p.m.
Sundays and holidays of 12: 00 to 14: 00 h.
Closed Monday.
Source: Barjola Gijón Museum.
Information:
Direction:
c / Trinidad, 17
33201, Gijón
Contact number: 985 357 939
Text: © Ramón Molleda for asturias.com
