The exhibition Madre Asturias. De la España negra al arte de avanzada has closed in Oviedo with a total of 4,500 visitors since its inauguration in June. Organized by the Consejería de Cultura, Política Llingüística y Deporte in collaboration with Banco Sabadell and curated by Luis Feás, the exhibition concluded after four months, reflecting public interest in a proposal that invited viewers to explore Asturias, its identity, popular classes, and social transformations through art.
More than 2,000 people visited the exhibition during its first month, held at the sala Sabadell Herrero. The project aimed to gather artworks that are typically dispersed and create a shared perspective on over 150 years of Asturian cultural history. Madre Asturias brought together 59 works from 37 artists, sourced from 27 public and private collections.
The exhibition spanned 165 years of creation, from Día de fiesta (1860) by Ignacio León y Escosura to Mineros (2025) by Adrián Martínez González. Through this extensive timeframe, the exhibition illustrated how Asturias has evolved and how its artists have interpreted these changes. Themes such as rural life, mining, industrialization, emigration, and social conflicts intersected with the evolution of artistic languages, providing a dual narrative that explains the construction of a distinct community image.
Visitors encountered works by key figures such as Darío de Regoyos, Evaristo Valle, Nicanor Piñole, Ventura Álvarez Sala, Antón, and Mariano Moré, alongside contemporary creators and a notable selection of posters. Collaboration with museums, institutions, municipalities, private collections, and family funds enabled the exhibition to feature unusual pieces that engaged in a cohesive narrative.
One of the highlights of Madre Asturias was the first public exhibition of Despedida a los novios en Monasterio de Hermo (1897) by Luis Álvarez Catalá, which was recently added to the public heritage by the Government of Asturias. Its presence in the exhibition allowed the public to view a piece of significant artistic, ethnographic, and documentary value for the first time. The painting depicts a scene of a wedding farewell in Monesteriu d’Ermu, in Cangas del Narcea, and serves as a valuable testament to the social rituals and daily life of rural Asturias in the late 19th century.
The inclusion of this artwork connected the exhibition narrative with one of the ministry's objectives: to recover, conserve, and make heritage accessible for public enjoyment. The scale of the exhibition was made possible through loans from institutions such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias, Museo Casa Natal de Jovellanos, Muséu del Pueblu d’Asturies, and Museo Antón de Candás, as well as from the artistic collections of Banco Sabadell, Banco Santander, municipalities, and private collectors.
