Intramuros to open ‘street art exhibit’

Over 50 photographs of art masterpieces from Spain’s Museo del Prado will soon be displayed on the streets of Intramuros, Manila, as a showcase of the splendor and elegance of Spanish influence on Filipino culture.

Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo said in a statement that the exhibit featuring at least 53 life-size, high-definition photos of paintings was a joint project of the Intramuros Administration (IA) and Spanish Embassy. It will be open to the public from June to August.

The photos are currently on display at “The Prado Museum in Manila” monthlong exhibit of Instituto Cervantes, which opened on Saturday at Ayala Triangle Park in Makati. The pictures will be donated to IA afterward.

Teo said the exhibit would literally transform Intramuros streets into “public art spaces,” adding: “It’s a laudable undertaking between the Embassy of Spain and our own IA in that it accentuates the grandeur of Spanish dominance on our culture.”

Among those to be featured is Juan Luna’s “La Muerte de Cleopatra” (Death of Cleopatra), the painting that won second place at the 1881 National Exposition Fine Arts in Madrid.

“The exhibition becomes more relevant to us Filipinos with the inclusion of the great work of Juan Luna, a fitting tribute to one of the most revered Filipino artists of the 19th century who marks his 160th birth anniversary this year,” Teo said.

Other mounted prints include masterpieces from the 12th to 19th century by Spanish painters Francisco Goya, Diego Velasquez and Bartolome Esteban Murillo; the Italians Titian, Sandro Botticelli and Caravaggio; the Flemings Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Hieronymus Bosch; the German master Albrecht Dürer; and the Dutch master Rembrandt.

IA administrator Guiller Asido said the exhibit in Intramuros would attract more tourists.