The Thyssen Museum in Málaga hosts the Suñol Collection, the work of a patron who lived in a museum of 'Warhols' and 'Picassos'

Every day he had coffee and toast under an imposing Warhol, a piece as extraordinary in size as it was iconic. A portrait of 'Mao' (1972) in the style of the pop master that became one of his favorite works and the most famous piece in his collection. The communist leader, transformed with colors, captures the gaze as one enters the new exhibition at the Carmen Thyssen Museum, 'Archipelago', which brings to the third floor of the Villalón Palace the collection of Josep Suñol Soler (1927-2019), one of the most personal and exceptional patrons of our country. He turned his Pedralbes house in Barcelona into a veritable museum of contemporary art with works by Picasso, Braque, Miró, Tapies, Canogar, Chillida, Gordillo, Guinovart, Lootz, Miralles, and Scully. Artistic gems for his eyes only that, from this Saturday, can be enjoyed until September 6 in Malaga.

If works speak of their artists, collections portray their owners. And Suñol Soler's collection sketches an entrepreneur who, since the 70s, not only invested money but also had the sensitivity to gather a catalog of contemporary art ranging from the avant-garde of the early 20th century to the emerging artists of the late 20th century, whom he also enjoyed visiting personally. "He swapped boardrooms for the studios of painters and sculptors," explained Rodrigo Navia-Osorio Vijande, president of the Suñol Foundation about the patron who originated this collection, which he knows firsthand since the benefactor was his godfather. "I have slept in the rooms that display these paintings and have dined with the 'warhol'," he confessed about this two-meter-tall piece "absolutely iconic and fundamental" from the collection and from last century's pop culture.

During the presentation of the exhibition, Navia-Osorio pointed out that Suñol Soler's arrival at patronage was not vocational but accidental, when moving to his new house he asked the father of the current president of the Foundation, the gallerist Fernando Vijande, for help to "decorate" the residence. "But as the house was so large, he got the bug, wanted to meet the artists, and collecting became his passion," reminisced the expert who indicated that, as can be seen at the Carmen Thyssen Museum, we are before a "very eclectic" collection. "That's why I think the title 'Archipelago' for the exhibition is fitting, because the collection is made up of different artists and styles that are islands," he assured about the selection of fifty paintings -mostly paintings, though there are also sculptures- from the thousand pieces that make up the entire patron's catalog.

The exhibition, which coincides with the fifteenth anniversary of the Carmen Thyssen Museum and is supported by the 'La Caixa' Foundation, is thus divided into five 'islets' that form this archipelago that goes far beyond the emblematic 'Mao' by Warhol. "We also have significant works by Miró and Braque, while in the final part of material painting, Canogar's gigantic work is displayed, and in the Spanish abstraction section, before the informalism crisis, we have Carmen Calvo and Tapies who is very represented in the collection," commented Bárbara García, curator alongside Alberto Gil of this temporary exhibition that has put "in dialogue" works that had never been exhibited together before.

In fact, the expert stated that we are before one of the great private Spanish collectors, alongside Pilar Citoler or Carmen Thyssen herself whose museum in Malaga hosts the exhibition, and highlighted that this collection is still to be discovered since it began to be publicly exhibited at the beginning of the 21st century. Thus, 'Archipelago' not only exhibits symbolic and representative works but also unpublished pieces that are exhibited for the first time with the signature of Eduardo Chillida, Ràfols-Casamada, Antoni Llena, Giorgio Griffa, and Darío Villalba.

Alongside three pieces by this last Basque artist, another highlight of the exhibition is displayed, 'Bust of a Woman with a Yellow Blouse' (1943), a recognizable portrait of a woman by the Malaga-born Pablo Ruiz Picasso made in collage on a wooden panel, which also has a story behind it. "It's a very particular work that a few years ago was requested by the Picasso Museum in Barcelona for an exhibition and they found a photo of Paul Eluard in his house with that painting behind," explains Rodrigo Navia-Osorio Vijande about this painting that was a gift from the Malaga artist to his friend and French poet in the 40s. And in a final twist, this 'picasso' entered the art market and ended up in the esteemed Suñol Soler collection.

This 'picasso' is another of those "lived pieces" that give a special character to the exhibition, as highlighted by the president of the Foundation, who also emphasized that the selection made by the curators of the Carmen Thyssen Museum is "different" from that of the institution he directs and allows "to discover this collection in another way that goes from figuration to abstraction, passing through the material or the pop." Navia-Osorio Vijande also emphasized the three great works exhibited by the Andalusian Luis Gordillo, whose patronage by Josep Suñol in the 70s allowed him "to stop teaching French and dedicate himself to painting becoming this great painter," he commented pointing out his large two-meter canvases.

Most of the works displayed were acquired precisely in the 70s, when collecting generally focused mainly on male artists. "But here we have the sculptor Susana Solano, and Fina Miralles, Carmen Calvo, and Eva Lootz, four women who at that time was quite rare," commented the godson of Josep Suñol. A varied representation of contemporary art that has also been valued by the artistic director of the Carmen Thyssen Museum, Lourdes Moreno, who applauded the staging of 'Archipelago' as it offers "a very accurate look at what happened in those years in contemporary art in our country, in addition to having great international names."

The head of programming of the gallery highlighted the happy coincidence of the inauguration of this exhibition "of one of the most important collections in our country" with the 15th anniversary of the Carmen Thyssen center itself. "We have crossed the line of maturity and have a solid and cohesive team," declared Lourdes Moreno, who congratulated the different departments of the museum and particularly focused her "thanks to the team of Javier Ferrer -manager-", a mutual understanding at the top of the cultural institution that has not gone unnoticed by what it means of public recognition between both parties against the backdrop of a time when a real civil war was waged between management and administration.

Moreno concluded by encouraging a visit to the museum since, to the burning relevance of contemporary art of 'Archipelago', is added the recent opening of a new 'room' in the building's basement where the Roman villa archaeological site that allows to know a Roman villa from the 1st to the 5th century AD is displayed. And where you can also see a fountain with the oldest mural painting in Malaga.