The Thyssen in Madrid traces seven centuries of trompe l'oejos, the art of deception

Madrid 15 Mar The Thyssen Museum in Madrid reviews seven centuries of optical illusions, from ancient masters to the most current graffiti, in “Hiperreal the art of the trompe l'oeil”, an exhibition that unravels artists' keys to deceiving the viewer's eye. The ability to pass what is painted as real has a long tradition in the visual arts, as can be seen in the more than one hundred works gathered in this exhibition, open from tomorrow until May 22. From the incredible human figures of Giuseppe Arcimboldo to the three-dimensional image puzzle of Isidro Blasco, there are seven centuries of difference, but both try to transgress the laws of optics and perspective. “The aim was to highlight the vitality of a theme, the trompe l'oeil, which has had a great development in the history of art and reaches the present day,” Mar Borovía, curator of the exhibition, explained today during its presentation. The first examples are known through Greek literary texts, although it was not until the Renaissance and Baroque that it was in full swing; in Romanticism its popularity declined, but it never disappeared from the art scene. “It has come to this day,” Borovia explains, “in urban decoration, on streets, sidewalks and facades.” ART FOR ALL AUDIENCES The curators have devised an exhibition grouped into themes, in a transversal way, which has given them “flexibility” to combine authors from different periods and see the different treatment of trompe l'oejos seven centuries apart. “The trompe l'oeil is easy to understand by all audiences, from the initiated public to those who don't,” Borovia points out. The still life is the “genre par excellence of the trompe l'oeil” but it is the game with frames, limits and margins one of the most used resources in the genre. Here you can see “Fleeing from Criticism”, also known as “Boy Leaving the Picture”, a piece by Pere Borrell from the Case in which a young man, surprised, seems to escape the canvas. In “Holes for the curious”, the paintings blend in with the walls and appear to be windows, niches and niches in which painters place fruits and vegetables (Juan Sánchez Cotán), smoking utensils (Georg Flegel) or falconry equipment (Christoffel Pierson). THE ARTIST'S CORNER Many artists used the trompe l'oeil to portray corners of their studios: “quodlibet” are a variant of the genre, in which artists made compositions of everyday objects, personal objects or work tools, placed apparently randomly. Samuel van Hoogstraten and Cornelius Norbertus Gijsbrechts are its top representatives. The scene almost always “keeps a second reading”, according to Borovia. “Still Life in Trompe l'oeil” by Gijsbrechts shows a still life partially unhung from the frame, along with its painting tools and its own portrait, with an obvious sense of self-promotion. Flowers and sculptures are two of the most used objects in the trompe l'oejos. The museum has a beautiful example in its permanent collection, Jan van Eyck's “Diptych of the Annunciation”, in which the artist reproduces in great detail the two alabaster sculptures and the marbles and stones of the frames pretended on the moldings. ANTIQUE VS CONTEMPORARY In all the rooms you can find contemporary artists together with ancient authors, which “allows you to look at the old paintings in a different way”. In the last two rooms, the most contemporary trompe l'oeil predominates, with examples by Dalí, but above all by American authors. Harnett, Harbele, Peto or Cope use objects from their nearest world - papers, hunting trophies, banknotes, newspapers or letters - to evoke themes related to collective memory or refer to current issues such as economics, consumer culture or censorship. The sharpness and ingenuity of the trompe l'oeil can be seen throughout the exhibition in authors separated by seven centuries, but the piece by Giusseppe Arcimbolo, known for its fruit, flower and animal heads, stands out above all. “The Earth”, a piece from The Princely Collections (circa 1570) shows a bust made with animal heads, reindeer, lions, sheep, an elephant or a rabbit, which perfectly reconstruct a head in profile. The exhibition says goodbye with a work commissioned by Isidro Blasco, an artist who combines photography, sculpture and architecture, with a fragment of an elevated train in Brooklyn; the work is made up of about two hundred pieces and, without being a typical trompe l'oeil, reflects the reflection on the reality-representation duality that genre entails. CHIEF csr.fch (photo) (video)