The legacy of Gabriel Cualladó

The IVAM presents a journey through the work, archive and library of Gabriel Cualladó with the exhibition 'Cualladó: archive/work'. Inaugurated in mid-December at the Julio González Center , the exhibition revisits some of the artist's most relevant photographic projects, while also discovering a more intimate dimension thanks to the donation of his family and the work of research and cataloguing the museum's collections, in which Cualladó's photographic library stands out, acquired by the museum in 2022 and composed of 1,506 volumes.

Gabriel Cualladó (Massanassa, 1925 – Madrid, 2003) was a photographer but also a collector, editor and promoter of photographic art, becoming one of the key figures in the history of photography in Spain. Through more than 180 images and numerous documents, the exhibition presents the various facets of a man who knew how to balance his passion for photography with a solid commitment to preserving and promoting the legacy of other photographers who also marked history . His collection, one of the most outstanding in the country, includes fundamental names such as Diane Arbus , Richard Avedon , Man Ray , Henri Cartier-Bresson and Dorothea Lange . These authors, who profoundly influenced Cualladó's photographic practice, are present in the exhibition through some of their most representative works.

Paris (1962), Gabriel Cualladó. IVAM

One of the most outstanding aspects of the exhibition is the presentation of a set of previously unpublished photographs: a wedding report that Cualladó took for the photographer Ramón Masats and his wife, Montse Santamaría. This work, never exhibited before, has been donated by the family with the aim of sharing a part of the artist's legacy. In this sense, his son, Gabriel Cualladó, has highlighted how: "A very genuine characteristic of his work is that he took simplicity to the extreme and many of his iconic photographs are a reflection of this, eliminating what was superfluous, according to his conception of the image".

The exhibition also highlights his work as a creator, with a selection of personal projects. A wide display of materials allows us to get closer to his working method, from photomontages and correspondence to Polaroids and triptychs, drawing a line between his creative work and his practice as a collector. This collection, built intuitively through acquisitions and exchanges with other artists, shows a common vision of photography as a tool for reflection and transformation.

'Cualladó: arxiu/obra'. © Miguel Lorenzo