Artistic quality in the City of Paradise 📷 Malaga - Spain

The quality in every brushstroke, in every texture and in every relief was noticeable, that is the most beautiful thing in art.

The Museum of Fine Arts of the city of Malaga, which is inside the Palacio de la Aduana, in addition to its permanent exhibitions, has a room on the ground floor, designed to offer temporary exhibitions and these are available for approximately three months.

As this place is located in the historic centre of the city, it is a regular place to visit and a few days ago I went in to see if they had changed the exhibition and indeed they had.

You always have to go to the reception first, even though the entrance is free, as you are given an entrance ticket. The receptionist told me that I was going to love the temporary exhibition because it was of high quality. That of course is subjective, it depends on one's taste, but when I entered the room I realised that she was quite right.

The art exhibition belongs to the artist Antonio Muñoz Degrain and is called City of Paradise. It is being held in commemoration of the first centenary of his death. He has been one of the highest quality exhibitors of art in the region during the second half of the 19th century.

The best thing about these exhibitions is that there are always explanatory panels on the walls, so that you can not only read what the art exhibition is about, but also learn a little about the history of the period.

This city was very important to the artist, like his home, even though he travelled a lot and was from Valencia. In gratitude, much of his legacy can be found exclusively in Malaga in various museums. He himself called the city a paradise.

That is why this exhibition is so special, because it is a tribute to Antonio Muñoz Degrain.

The first works of the painter on display are accompanied by a brief account of his life, his history and his arrival in this city. They also talk about his work in the Cervantes Theatre and the two castles of Alcazaba and Gibralfaro.

These walls tell about his personal life and about him as a teacher at the School of Fine Arts. They talk about his art, his style and his brushstrokes.

One of the things that changed in this exhibition is that the museum arranged the panels as if to follow a circuit, a very well guided path to follow and each area had different colours, so you could distinguish very well different stages of the painter.

His works are of an extreme quality, you only had to look at the portraits, the faces and the details of each of his paintings.

Of course, during the tour and in these different stages, I also found writings explaining a little more about the artist's life and work, especially as a teacher.

The works referring to nature struck me above all in the way he painted the mountains and rocks, with very clear brushstrokes in different colours, at first I didn't seem to be looking at rocks but at something else.

There were paintings that were very large, in fact, they took up the entire height of the wall and some of them referred to nature while others to night scenes, for example.

At one point in the exhibition there was a large space where the painter's palette was displayed, and in one of the murals it was reproduced in giant size, which I liked very much.

Near this mural there were more works of art, some of everyday life, others of nature scenes, all very beautiful.

Although many of his works are to be found exclusively in the city of Málaga and in the province as well, many others are spread throughout the rest of Spain, for example in Valencia.

In another part of the museum there was a screen showing videos of the emblematic places where you can find something related to the painter. Among these places are the town hall, the Picasso Museum, the painter's mausoleum in the historical cemetery and a sculpture in the city park.

Near the end of the tour, a large area is devoted to drawings and sketches that the painter bequeathed and donated especially to the Town Hall of Malaga, which are arranged in glass cases for safekeeping.

The painter had studied architecture and I was able to see some of his work here too.

And there were not only paintings, drawings, sketches and parts of plans, but also a door made of wood with some very well executed figures. I love woodwork, because of its great detail and workmanship. The whole exhibition was overflowing with quality and good taste.

It was a tour of which I did not expect so much beauty, and so far it was the temporary exhibition that I liked the most in this museum, the one that I enjoyed the most, especially the details so well done, the colours and the techniques used.

I hope you enjoyed these works as much as I did. I send you all a big greeting and see you soon.
Amonet.