'Portrait in Green', 1966. Exhibition 'Lee Krasner. Living color', at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
Just over two decades ago, Bilbao it abandoned its grayish hue to embrace much more colorful and contemporary colors. The city mutated to the beat of the arrival of the Guggenheim and this effect was so shocking that it even began to be studied in universities as a transforming model both in terms of tourism and economy.
Since then many others have tried to copy this successful formula in which a cultural building becomes the protagonist of the urban landscape (and of the idiosyncrasy of a place), but the cloned formula does not quite work.
There is a building signed by a renowned architect. There is a campaign to position the city as a global brand. There is an exorbitant monetary investment (and maybe also disorderly). But the sought-after 'Bilbao Effect' never ends. Why? The answer, although it may seem like a bilbainada, is more obvious than it seems: because Bilbao there is only one.
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
The capital of Vizcaya is comfortable, practical, accessible, clean, solvent, friendly, cultured, intelligent, cosmopolitan, delicious, green, aesthetic, modern, authentic... and It has a soul, that of the Bilbao men and women who know how to enjoy their spaces and their restless lifestyle like no other in which changes are welcome for the benefit of the community. For this reason, its streets, promenades and parks are always full (eye, also its bars and restaurants) and they are never satisfied with what they have, they always want more. They always more. Thus Bilbao never seems to stagnate and always ends up surprising us with innovative proposals that manage to capture our attention. this time There are three new (and colorful) reasons to return to the city of Nervión this autumn, but we are sure that more will come soon. Always more!
Bilbao is a comfortable, accessible, aesthetic, modern, authentic city...
THE EXHIBITION
The most relevant exhibition dedicated to Lee Krasner (1908-1984) in Europe in the last 50 years has arrived at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (until January 10, 2021) to fill its rooms with colour, life and abstraction. Because, as the talented New York artist said, one of the most representative figures of North American Abstract Expressionism : “I want a canvas to breathe and be alive. Being alive is the key.”
Lee Krasner. Vivid Color is the title of the retrospective that covers the fundamental works of this pioneering artist, highlighting the constant reinvention shown throughout her 50-year career, as well as the continuous exploration of new expressive and artistic languages.
She never liked corsets and stuff it shows in his way of avoiding the 'signature iconography': she went from painting small, dense abstractions with a palette knife to making Nocturnal Journeys in white and tan earth; from the umbra color she veered back to the more luxuriant pigments –So used by Matisse, her artistic hero–; and in the 70's we saw her creative strength resurface in a more relaxed way until she took some old drawings that she had done when she was studying at Hans Hofmann's school and she dismembered them with scissors to create with them on the canvas geometric compositions in the form of collage.
Lee Krasner in his studio in 1962.
These artistic cycles (which have so much to do with their own life cycles) they are perfectly fragmented and curated by Eleanor Nairne, from the Barbican Art Gallery, and Lucía Agirre, from the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in the exhibition, which divides the route into eleven artistic stages, contextualized within the personal (and therefore emotional) moment in which Lee Krasner found himself.
To understand this dual relationship between art and life it is essential to sit down and watch the audiovisual projection Lee Krasner, in her Own Words that precedes the exhibition, which demonstrates –in her own words– the strong and decisive character of an artist who, although she at times she was ignored (this for her, in many ways, was a “blessing”) or overshadowed by her husband (she was married to the great Jackson Pollock), she ended her days receiving the much deserved recognition. **
Lee Krasner 'Palingenesis', 1971. Exhibition 'Lee Krasner. Living color', at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
THE RESTAURANT
Bilbao is not lacking in restaurants where you can enjoy its most traditional and authentic gastronomy, but the city needed a place to be in which to see and be seen. This is without a doubt the new Balicana Restaurant and Lounge, a very theatrical trendy place where you won't find a marmitaco but you will find the most photographed stairs in the whole city (in which, in addition, on Saturdays a DJ is usually placed to play live music).
The enormous space of almost 1,000 m² is divided into two equally colorful and tropical environments but perfectly differentiated by what is offered in them. The lounge, upstairs, is specialized in drinks and sweet cocktails (only with table service) and has a lighter card For those who only want to snack on something: Balinese roll stuffed with vegetables, chicken chili croquettes with botija olive mayonnaise, tacos al pastor based on Iberian secret with rodicio, guacamole, roasted sauce and roasted pineapple...
The fashion ladder in Bilbao is at Balicana Restaurant and Lounge.
The most formal restaurant occupies the lower part of the premises and in its menu you will find dishes as attractive and international as an Israeli salad (futush), a sustainable Balfegó red tuna steak, an anticuchero octopus or a chifero seafood udon; also its famous (and highly requested) lobster chili crab, which arrives accompanied by bomba rice, peanuts, cilantro and lime.
"We do not do fusion cuisine, but rather we have taken different cooking techniques or methods from around the world. We have Argentinian grill, Brazilian rodicio, Indian tandoor oven and Mediterranean food. Everything with the Balicana touch and prepared in an open kitchen," explains Paco López, manager of Balicana Restaurant and Lounge.
Restaurant area in Balicana Restaurant and Lounge, Bilbao.
THE HOTEL
The Ercilla hotel in Bilbao is not new, in fact it has been linked to Bilbao's cultural life since it was founded in 1972, but it has just undergone a complete refurbishment that has restored its original glamour. With a seventies look, in the rooms of this Autograph Collection stand out the winks and vintage details and in its common areas, color, textures and geometric paper have made everything more sophisticated.
Located on the ground floor, the American Bar is its social heart, where everything happened (and happens again) in Bilbao. Who wouldn't want to have a cocktail to the rhythm of jazz where Gina Lollobrigada, Fabio Testi, Rocío Jurado or Julio Iglesias did before?
American Bar, the heart of social life in the Ercilla de Bilbao.
And if this representative space –in which a photo of Pavarotti cooking pasta in the hotel kitchen hangs– is an ode to the history of the Ercilla, its wonderful terrace with 360º views over the rooftops of Bilbao it is to the new hotel contemporaneity, in which guests and locals share the taste for having a glass of wine or a signature cocktail –while snacking on a dish from their relaxed menu–.
Terrace of the Ercilla in Bilbao.
At the moment, due to the Covid, the live music concerts that took place on the roof, behind the huge neon sign with the name of the hotel that crowns the building, but as soon as the Ercilla can recover its programming, we will have a new reason to return to Bilbao, a restless city that, for one reason or another, we always end up loving more and more. They always more.