Àngel Jové and Pere Portabella, headliners of the Museu Tàpies for 2026

BarcelonaÀngel Jové (1940-2023) was a great and multifaceted artist: one of the authors of the first video art work in the State, First death,He collaborated with Bigas Luna on films such as Bilbao and Poodle andHe designed objects such as the lamp BabelIn addition, he created dozens of covers for the publishers Lumen and, above all, Anagrama. Jové could have lived off his earnings, but he continued writing and creating tirelessly in his studio. His fans and those who are yet to discover him are in luck: two years after his death, the Tàpies Museum The museum will showcase his legacy with a major exhibition curated by the prestigious art historian Maria Josep Balsach, a partner of the artist. It will be one of the highlights of the museum's 2026 program and one of the year's most important exhibitions in Barcelona. "Àngel Jové was a very powerful artist, but also very sensitive," says Imma Prieto, director of the Museu Tàpies. "He did a few very specific exhibitions out of friendship, but the art world didn't interest him; he found it disrupted his concentration. When he had to choose between the art world and creating, he chose creating."

The exhibition will be titled Ángel Jové. De intactum (from March 19 to September 27) and will occupy two of the museum's three floors. Jové, who is also known for co-designing the Zeleste logo, along with Silvia GubernHis work began to be collected in the 1990s. Since then, he exhibited sporadically. "Jové addressed the themes of poverty, the post-war period, and memory. The Spanish post-war era and the Franco regime are very evident in his work, but through a poetic metamorphosis," says Prieto. "He reflected on those most intimate spaces of the human being when living in conditions of harshness, fragility, and lack of freedom. Here appears a human being who appeals to the infinite from melancholic spaces," he emphasizes. In addition to his drawings, paintings, and sculptures (some made with wire and empty plates), the exhibition will feature films from the 1960s and 70s.

Jové created the video First death Along with Silvia Gubern, Jordi Galí, and Antoni Llena, who formed the Grup del Maduixer, "a complete departure from Tàpies's approach," says Prieto. They refused to join the Working Group, the conceptual collective that Tàpies confronted in 1973 with a critical article in The Vanguard. Among the creators of the Working Group was the filmmaker Pere Portabella, to whom the museum will dedicate another of the year's exhibitions. Tàpies, Portabella. Friendship Politics (From September 29, 2026 to February 2027). It will include four works by Tàpies from the Portabella collection, some never before exhibited, and will be one of the activities commemorating the filmmaker's centenary.

The relationship between the two artists predated the controversy surrounding conceptual art; in 1967, Tàpies had designed the poster for Portabella's short film. Don't count your fingers (1967). "What we intend in this exhibition is to activate a space for direct dialogue with the public to consider what is happening today with criticism," explains Prieto. "Contrary to what some may think, the criticism between Tàpies and Portabella is a space of dialogue and deep friendship," says Prieto.

Tàpies in the 1950s

The program will include another exhibition on Tàpies, Antoni Tàpies. The perpetual motion of the wall (From February 12 to September 6, 2026), focusing on four exhibitions Tàpies held during the 1950s at the Galeries Layetanes, the Sala Gaspar, and the Galerie Stadler in Paris. It was during this time that Tàpies began to show his work publicly and considered how he should do so. To capture his reflections, some of the spaces that shaped the perception of his works will be recreated, as they might have been painted black or draped with curtains.

There will be two exhibitions dedicated to women artists: Cristina Lucas. E-conmotion (From September 2026 to February 2027) will screen a film with archival footage about the successive industrial revolutions and their impact from a class, historical, political, and environmental perspective. The exhibition will have a specific olfactory focus for each era, with works made with coal, oil, electricity, and big data

The other artist will be South African Penny Siopis (1953), whose work will run from October 22, 2026, to March 2027. "Her work reveals that she didn't experience the repression of the Black population firsthand, but she was treated as a second-class white person because of her Greek origins. The exhibition will display objects the artist collected at human rights demonstrations, such as pamphlets and pieces of burnt hats, accompanied by archival descriptions. In another, more visually oriented section, there will be collages made with these objects, paintings, and films. "Her paintings are wonderful, very expressive, but they also have that touch of pain and fragility, and they show how fascism and neoliberal policies are the antithesis of any space where we can talk about equal human rights," says the museum director.