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Conference on Mariano Fortuny
From June 26, 2013 until July 06, 2013
On Thursday, May 23, Casa Árabe paid homage to Mariano Fortuny, an exceptional figure in the arts of the late nineteenth century, whose creative work exerted a great influence on the Arab world.
The event, which is titled “The Orient of Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (Granada, 1871 – Venice, 1949): Art, Science and Design,” will include the participation of Eduardo López Busquets, General Director of Casa Árabe; Guillermo de Osma, an art historian and specialist on the figure of Fortuny y Madrazo; Elvira González Asenjo, a curator of historical dress at the Museo del Traje (Clothing Museum), and Claudio Zulian, an artist and film director.
The conference will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the institution’s Auditorium in Madrid (at Calle Alcalá, 62), and afterwards the documentary Fortuny y la lámpara maravillosa (Fortuny and the Wonderful Lamp) will be screened.
With this event, Casa Árabe wishes to pay homage to the figure of Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (Granada, 1871 – Venice, 1949) and highlight the influence he has had on the Arab world in his creative work. A painter, engraving artist, stage decorator and designer, he was a unique case in the history of art, design and technology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His creative skill and the mark he left behind in such different fields as painting, fashion and technology invite us to look for his predecessors amongst the artists of the Renaissance. His pleated silk garments, his Delphos dress, his layers of velvet and printed fabrics are considered by historians, collectors and museums from all over the world to be the manifestation and incarnation of an art in its highest form of expression.
After the conference, the documentary Fortuny y la lámpara maravillosa (Fortuny and the Wonderful Lamp) will be screened. Directed by Claudio Zulian, it reflects the modern cultural sharing which occurs between East and West, narrated on the basis of the history of creations –lamps, fabrics and dresses– which were designed by Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo. The lamps and fabrics evoke that imagery of wonderful and exotic ambiences of markets, harems and caravans, which his father, the great Spanish painter Mariano Fortuny y Marsal, had contributed to creating.
[Screenwriter and director: Claudio Zulian. Director of photography: Antoni Anglada. Editing: Laura P. Sola. Producer: Acteón]
An art historian, gallery owner and specialist on the figure of Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, he became interested in this artist’s work in 1978. He has curated various exhibitions on the designer and in 1981 had already published Mariano Fortuny. His life and work (London, Aurum Press, and New York, Rizzoli, 1980). He is also the author of Mariano Fortuny, Proust y los ballets rusos (Mariano Fortuny, Proust and the Russian Ballets, Barcelona, Elba, 2010) and the recently published Mariano Fortuny, arte, ciencia y diseño (Mariano Fortuny, Art, Science and Design, Madrid, Ollero y Ramos, 2012). In the 1990’s the Guillermo de Osma Gallery opened in Madrid, a space specializing in Europe and Latin America’s historical Vanguard movements.
Holder of a degree in Modern History and a doctorate in Art History from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Her doctoral thesis on Don Juan José de Austria and the Arts: 1629-1679 was awarded with the Extraordinary Doctorate Award of the UCM (2004) and published in 2005. She is currently a curator of the collection of Historic Dress of the Museo del Traje, where she is responsible for the Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo Collection, as well as others.
A film director, artist, musician, writer and producer, he has also authored a multi-form work sensitive to social matters, but always attentive to formal innovation. Amongst his films is L’Avenir (The Future, documentary, 2004; award recipient at international festivals), Beatriz/Barcelona (feature film, 2006) and his documentary A través el Carmel (2007), which received the Barcelona City Prize of 2010 and the National Culture Award of Catalonia for 2010. In 2010, he presented the documentary feature film Fortuny y la lámpara maravillosa (Fortuny and the Wonderful Lamp), which was the result of research on the work of Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo and was recorded in the cities of Barcelona, Granada, Venice, Paris and Dubai.
The conference will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the institution’s Auditorium in Madrid (at Calle Alcalá, 62), and afterwards the documentary Fortuny y la lámpara maravillosa (Fortuny and the Wonderful Lamp) will be screened.
With this event, Casa Árabe wishes to pay homage to the figure of Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (Granada, 1871 – Venice, 1949) and highlight the influence he has had on the Arab world in his creative work. A painter, engraving artist, stage decorator and designer, he was a unique case in the history of art, design and technology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His creative skill and the mark he left behind in such different fields as painting, fashion and technology invite us to look for his predecessors amongst the artists of the Renaissance. His pleated silk garments, his Delphos dress, his layers of velvet and printed fabrics are considered by historians, collectors and museums from all over the world to be the manifestation and incarnation of an art in its highest form of expression.
After the conference, the documentary Fortuny y la lámpara maravillosa (Fortuny and the Wonderful Lamp) will be screened. Directed by Claudio Zulian, it reflects the modern cultural sharing which occurs between East and West, narrated on the basis of the history of creations –lamps, fabrics and dresses– which were designed by Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo. The lamps and fabrics evoke that imagery of wonderful and exotic ambiences of markets, harems and caravans, which his father, the great Spanish painter Mariano Fortuny y Marsal, had contributed to creating.
[Screenwriter and director: Claudio Zulian. Director of photography: Antoni Anglada. Editing: Laura P. Sola. Producer: Acteón]
Guillermo de Osma Wakonigg
An art historian, gallery owner and specialist on the figure of Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, he became interested in this artist’s work in 1978. He has curated various exhibitions on the designer and in 1981 had already published Mariano Fortuny. His life and work (London, Aurum Press, and New York, Rizzoli, 1980). He is also the author of Mariano Fortuny, Proust y los ballets rusos (Mariano Fortuny, Proust and the Russian Ballets, Barcelona, Elba, 2010) and the recently published Mariano Fortuny, arte, ciencia y diseño (Mariano Fortuny, Art, Science and Design, Madrid, Ollero y Ramos, 2012). In the 1990’s the Guillermo de Osma Gallery opened in Madrid, a space specializing in Europe and Latin America’s historical Vanguard movements.
Elvira González Asenjo
Holder of a degree in Modern History and a doctorate in Art History from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Her doctoral thesis on Don Juan José de Austria and the Arts: 1629-1679 was awarded with the Extraordinary Doctorate Award of the UCM (2004) and published in 2005. She is currently a curator of the collection of Historic Dress of the Museo del Traje, where she is responsible for the Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo Collection, as well as others.
Claudio Zulian
A film director, artist, musician, writer and producer, he has also authored a multi-form work sensitive to social matters, but always attentive to formal innovation. Amongst his films is L’Avenir (The Future, documentary, 2004; award recipient at international festivals), Beatriz/Barcelona (feature film, 2006) and his documentary A través el Carmel (2007), which received the Barcelona City Prize of 2010 and the National Culture Award of Catalonia for 2010. In 2010, he presented the documentary feature film Fortuny y la lámpara maravillosa (Fortuny and the Wonderful Lamp), which was the result of research on the work of Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo and was recorded in the cities of Barcelona, Granada, Venice, Paris and Dubai.
