Rodes reopens MUBAG
Exhibition of works by often overlooked Alicante artist
ALICANTE museum of fine art (MUBAG) has been closed for extensive refurbishments since the summer of 2018.
With the works gradually being completed, one of the museum’s rooms is being opened to the public for an exhibition entitled Vicente Rodes. El estudio al natural (Vicente Rodes. The natural study).
The exhibition is open until December 15 and contains 85 works – from museums, institutions and private collections – by the Alicante-born artist who, despite being one of the ‘highest quality’ painters of the first half of the 19th century, has been ‘relegated to short biographies in dictionaries of painters’. He has rarely been exhibited in collective exhibitions and has had just one dedicated exhibition, which took place almost 100 years ago.
The MUBAG exhibition is divided into two halves – the first of which looks at Rodes’ youth and development as an artist, and the second contains mature works from a later period which coincided with him gaining academic and social recognition.
Vicente Rodes (Alicante, 1783 – Barcelona, 1858) began his artistic studies at Alicante consulate of the sea drawing school and finished at the San Carlos academy of fine arts in Valencia.
The quality of the work that Rodes completed after his move to Barcelona afforded him local fame and made him into one of the period’s preferred Catalan society portrait artists.
The MUBAG is situated at Calle Gravina 13-15, Alicante and is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 10.0020.00 and Sundays and bank holidays from 10.00-14.00. It is closed on Mondays.
Admission is free.