A Dual Perspective on the MUN Collection: Historical Photography and Spirituality in Painting and Sculpture

The Museo Universidad de Navarra presents a fresh perspective on its collection with two exhibitions: Ad Ineffabilem: An Adventure of Matter and Spirit and The Revealed Image: The MUN’s Photography Collection. Under the new artistic direction of Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, both exhibitions offer different perspectives on the Museum’s Collection—an invitation to explore the relationship between art and transcendence and a journey through the history of photography up to the present day. These exhibitions are complemented by *Habitus et Praxis: Body, Clothing, and Tradition*, a fresh look at the Ortiz Echagüe Legacy.

The exhibitions opening today reflect the MUN’s mission for its collection: to research, preserve, disseminate, and even teach people how to contemplate art, thereby fostering renewed attention, a personal perspective, and a deeper understanding of the world through art. This was the wish of the collector María Josefa Huarte: to show that art is one of the many paths to encountering the transcendent. 

This aspect is essential to understanding the curatorial project of Ad Ineffabilem: An Adventure of Matter and Spirit, an exhibition curated by María José Zegers-Correa and Marta García Alonso—architects and professors at the School of Architecture at the University of Navarra—with the collaboration of Ricardo Piñer, professor of Aesthetics. The exhibition invites visitors to cross a threshold toward a new way of seeing, one capable of opening itself to the ineffable. This is a project that requires pausing the flow of life to listen to that which has never ceased to speak to us through time and space, through form and matter. The exhibition arises from the aim of making works of art a path toward the transcendent, so that, through contemplation, visitors may draw closer to the ineffable. The materiality of art thus becomes a path toward a spiritual encounter. 

The project began with research on the Collection and its artists. Curator María José Zegers-Correa states that it involved extensive research to understand the artists and their works, and how each one conceived their relationship with the transcendent. From this research emerged four concepts that group the works and, at the same time, encompass all of created reality—time, space, form, and matter—which give the galleries their names and structure the exhibition itinerary. The “Time” gallery is divided into three sections that articulate fragmentation, eternity, and the instant, featuring works by Picasso, Rothko, Sistiaga, and Zóbel. “Space,” on the other hand, is conceived as a single white, cubic volume, in which Oteiza’s works explore the concept of emptiness. In “Form,” Palazuelo’s works express the order that gives rise to reality—the discovery of a hidden geometry. And finally, the “Matter” section features the work of Antoni Tàpies, notably *L’esperit català* , which serves as the project’s central theme, as it embodies, within the work itself, the equality between matter and spirit. 

Regarding the design of the exhibition space, curator Marta García Alonso explains that the project sought to offer an experience different from the usual. “Until now, the galleries were open, airy spaces where the works shared the same area, and we realized that our project had to be radically different. We created boundaries to conceal the artwork, so that access to the artwork itself would evoke a sense of wonder.” Lighting and intimacy have also been fundamental elements in the design of the exhibition route, allowing visitors to engage with the art in a different and more personal way. Given the importance of the space and its furnishings, the curators and professors will promote a Teaching Innovation Project within the Bachelor’s Degree in Design to devise specific furniture for art contemplation, where all types of visitors—people of different ages and backgrounds—can engage in contemplation.

This new perspective on the Collection is also brought to life through the exhibition The Revealed Image: The MUN’s Photographic Collection, curated by Ignacio Miguéliz, the Museum’s Head of Collections and Exhibitions. In Gallery 0 on Level 0, the exhibition presents an overview spanning nearly 200 years of history, from the medium’s inception in 1839 to contemporary works. The exhibition explores both the technical and documentary aspects of the discipline and its ability to construct narratives about identity, history, and social reality. 

The exhibition is organized into three major chronological sections. The first, focused on the 19th century, explores the origins of the medium through daguerreotypes, albumen prints, carbon prints, and calotypes. It highlights international photographers drawn to Spain’s Romantic ideal, such as Gustave de Beaucorps, Louis De Clercq, and Alphonse De Launay, as well as Charles Clifford, Jane Clifford, and Jean Laurent. The second section covers the 20th century and the consolidation of the medium through movements such as pictorialism, avant-garde photography, social documentary photography, and war photography. It features artists such as Josep Brangulí, Rafael Sanz Lobato, and Juan Dolcet, as well as the perspectives of foreign photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Eugene Smith. A central role is played by the collection on the Spanish Civil War, featuring images by Robert Capa and Gerda Taro, Agustín Centelles, and Pere Catalá Pic, as well as the subsequent renewal led by the Afal group and the schools in Madrid and Barcelona (Ramón Masats, Gabriel Cualladó, Francesc Català-Roca, Joan Colom) and the expansion into the Ibero-American collection (Martín Chambi, Graciela Iturbide, Alberto Korda).

Finally, the discussion turns to 21st-century photography, and a central theme of this dialogue is the artist-in-residence program Tender Puentes—an initiative launched by the MUN in 2003 that has hosted 39 contemporary artists, including Joan Fontcuberta, Bleda and Rosa, Pierre Gonnord, Cristina Middel, and Vik Muniz, who draw inspiration from the Museum’s photography collection to create new works. Through this initiative, the MUN reinforces its commitment to the dissemination, conservation, and study of its photography collection, offering fresh perspectives. 

In addition, visitors can see the new exhibition on the Ortiz Echagüe Legacy at the Ortiz Echagüe Space on Level -1 of the museum Habitus et Praxis: Body, Clothing, and Tradition. This exhibition offers a contemporary reflection on clothing and the repetition of gestures and rituals.