Last November the Spanish capital added another reason to visit and rent apartments in Madrid. A new museum opened its doors, the Museo ABC de Dibujo e Ilustracion de Madrid. Conveniently situated close to the Conde Duque (an important address for art and culture in Madrid), the ABC Museum seeks to present the art of drawing and illustration. A majority of the works shown were published in the Spanish ABC newspaper as well as the magazine Blanco y Negro. In total, more than 200,000 works by about 1500 artists make up the collection of this museum.
The first exhibition El efecto de Iceberg (The Iceberg Effect) seeks to literally draw out the history of drawing and illustration in Spain at the end of the 19th and the 20th century especially with the works that appeared in Blanco y Negro. As the title already gives away, the exposition merely gives us a small outlook of a much broader unknown treasure of art.
The idea of Blanco y Negro has its origin in Germany. On a trip to Munich, a fascination with the content and layout of the German magazine Fliegende Blatter, sparked the idea in Torcuato Luca de Tena, a Spanish journalist and writer, to come up with something similar in Spain and little did he know then what effect and impact it would have on the world of art, graphic design and illustration. Blanco y Negro’s first edition came out in 1891 and ABC a little later in 1903 and for the first time artists had a platform where they could make their work known and that reached out to a broad audience. Up until the magazines were launched, art was something reserved for only a little privileged minority. The images published didn’t only support the content of the text but also showed artistic tendencies of the time.
The exposition is divided into 4 theme parts that chronologically present the development and evolution of illustration and drawing in the magazines.
Apart from the artwork that is exhibited in the museum, the building itself is worth mentioning as an artwork of its own. The building, a former brewery, has been renovated and redesigned to make it a true jewel of modern architecture. On about 3000 square meters distributed on 7 floors you can enjoy the collection of this museum.
For more information you can directly visit the museum’s website: A trip to the ABC museum is sure worthwhile when you are visiting Madrid. When it comes to accommodation there is nothing better than renting apartments in Madrid.
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