On Monday, October 8, 2012, Their Majesties King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia of Spain attended the opening of the exhibition, Gauguin and the Voyage to the Exotic, held at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.

“Paul Gauguin’s flight to Tahiti, where he regained his primitive style via exoticism, is the guiding thread of this exhibition. Through a comprehensive selection of works by a group of late 19th and early 20th century artists it will illustrate of the world how travel to supposedly more authentic regions brought about a transformation in creative language. 

The exhibition shall also analyze the degree to which this experience conditioned the rise of modern art. Curated by Paloma Alarcó, Chief Curator of Modern Painting at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, this exhibition will focus on the results of the artistic explorations undertaken by artists including Gauguin, Matisse, Kandinsky, Klee and Macke. It will also look at Gauguin’s influence on the German Expressionists and the French Fauves, emphasizing his role as the creator of a new and exotic canon, the starting point for the avant-garde artistic idioms that arose in the early decades of the 20th century.”

The Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza is also celebrating its 20th anniversary today, and if you are interested in viewing this exhibition it will be opened to the public beginning on October 9, 2012.