The legacy of Santos Torroella in Valladolid

A large part of the Rafael and María Teresa Santos Torroella Fund of the Girona City Council arrives at the Museo Patio Herreriano in Valladolid with the exhibition 'Knot the time. The Rafael and María Teresa Santos Torroella Foundation and its echoes in the Contemporary Art Collection Association'. This show, beyond being an exhibition of works of art, becomes a bridge between two avant-garde collections of the 20th century.

The exhibition includes 135 works of art and 200 documents from the Girona collection, accompanied by significant pieces from the collection of the Museu Patio Herreriano. Curated by Rosa Gutiérrez Herranz , historian and art critic, and Jaume Vidal Oliveras , professor and historian, the selection offers a perspective that evokes the evolution of the avant-gardes, reflecting an artistic culture that Santos Torroella promoted and documented intensively throughout of his life

Despite his great diversity of interests, Santos Torroella defined himself primarily as a poet. His verses, written in both Catalan and Spanish, bear the imprint of the generations of 98 and 27 and show the influence of Catalan poets such as Carles Riba and Luso-Brazilian authors. His activity as an art critic and teacher spanned decades, with collaborations in publications such as El Noticiero Universal, ABC and Diario 16 in the sixties, and a notable teaching assignment at the Escola Superior de Belles Arts de Saint George of Barcelona. As a historian, he stands out for his pioneering studies on the young Salvador Dalí, where he introduced psychoanalysis as a tool for iconographic interpretation and explored the complexities of the artistic relationship between Dalí and Federico García Lorca.

All these facets of Santos Torroella converge in his artistic practice as a draftsman and watercolorist and are also reflected in his extensive collection, a compendium of his vast universe of interests.

'Niña muerta', Ángeles Santos (1930)

The link between Girona and Valladolid began with the exhibition 'L'aposta per l'art nou. Itineraries of the avant-garde in Catalonia through the Rafael and María Teresa Santos Torroella fund', presented in Girona between 2023 and 2024. Faced with the success of that exhibition, the Museo Patio Herreriano decided to bring it to Valladolid and expand- the with new pieces to create a unique dialogue between the Santos Torroella fund and the local contemporary art collection, with the aim of highlighting the complexity of the Catalan avant-garde and projecting it in a wider Spanish context.

For the Santos Torroella family, Valladolid has a special meaning. When they settled there, Rafael Santos Torroella began his path in the art world, driven by the growing success of his sister, the artist Ángeles Santos Torroella. This cultural environment and the effervescence of the avant-gardes helped form his critical outlook, which would make him one of the most prominent disseminators of modern and contemporary Spanish art.

'Homenaje a los juegos de 1936', Maruja Mallo (1945)