Sorolla Through Light, Madrid
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Venue: Royal Palace, Madrid
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Dates: 17 February–24 September 2023
Light Art Exhibitions organised Sorolla through Light, which received more than 180,000 visitors and was co-produced with the Spanish heritage agency Patrimonio Nacional, Museo Sorolla and Fundación Museo Sorolla.
Curated by Blanca Pons-Sorolla, the Valencian painter’s great-granddaughter, and Consuelo Luca de Tena, former director of the Museo Sorolla, this innovative proposal combined original works by Joaquín Sorolla with the experience of a multi-sensory gallery and virtual reality room.
The show revisited Sorolla’s legacy by focusing on one of the defining hallmarks of his pictorial style: his rare talent for using paint to capture light. It also offered insight into fundamental themes in the artist’s career, such as the sea and the beach, landscapes and gardens, and portraits.
The conventional galleries displayed a total of twenty-four original paintings, many of which came from private collections and had never been publicly shown before.
In addition to the chance to admire original works of art, the exhibition offered a multi-sensory tour through Sorolla’s pictures, photographs and private papers with the help of multi-sensory LED screens and an immersive original soundtrack. It also included a virtual reality experience that transported visitors back to the Valencian artist’s time and the places he frequented. These immersive resources were developed with cutting-edge technology and content edited by the curators.
This was one of the most innovative exhibitions of 2023, the 100th anniversary of the death of Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida.
The Light Art show was among the various activities organised to mark the centenary, which the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport declared an “event of exceptional public interest”.
Sorolla through Light was voted Best Creative Proposal, and out of all the extended reality (XR) initiatives developed in Spain in 2023, Light Art Exhibitions received the prize for Best Entrepreneurial Vision in an XR Project.
Both distinctions were awarded by Immersiva XR, Spain’s national extended reality association.