Visit to #IVAM Institut Valencià d'Art Modern #Valencia

When visiting a new city we always like to visit at least one major art gallery, and in this case  it was the gallery of modern art. The building was impressive with exhibition on four floors and on this occasion we decided to start on the top floor and work our way down. This featured the work of Susana Solano and was a retrospective of work she has been developing since 2000.

Some of the large metal pieces were quite interesting but I wasn't keen on the basket weave sculptures. Some of the smaller models reminded me of when a class was given scrap metal to play with and the resulting sculptures didn't always work. Some had resulted in commissions and had been more successful.
Later, we entered Gallery 2 and here as a contrast we saw the sculptures of Julio Gonzalez with several works from the 1930's. This was easier to relate to as you could see the exploration of ideas; many of which had highly successful outcomes. These impressive sculptures made me wonder that in some areas sculpture had not really progressed over the following years. 

On the third floor was our most unusual find. Here the artist, Paco Roca, had done a series of paintings of a story board all around the gallery. As he painted a picture in a series of paintings, the people living in the work interacted with the images he drew. This was a fresh approach for me and reflected the links on the area above of a range of comic strips on show.

The best known artist was Fernand Leger. His paintings were in the last gallery we visited on the bottom floor. This was the highlight of the visit; seeing these impressive works in the flesh. There was a superb range of work and themes and we all had our personal favourites.

Several other works on show were from the IVAM collection and some, were not always to my taste. Some worked, others needed an explanation to be understood. But like all work, it is up to the individual to interpret them. One of my favourite finds were the two small metal figures showing where the toilets were  (The male one seen in the last picture below) a nice idea for an art gallery.
An enjoyable couple of hours and some interesting discussions resulted from our visit.