Peter Halley en España

As part of its exhibition program dedicated to the collection of Blanca and Borja Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, together with the Casal Solleric of Palma City Council, is organizing a monographic exhibition dedicated to a contemporary classic, the painter Peter Halley. This is the first Halley retrospective since the Museo Reina Sofía dedicated it to him in 1992 and covers the artist's entire career, from 1985 to 2024. The Casal Solleric selected twenty pieces for the exhibition, all from Spanish collections, both private and public, by the artist himself, who also designed the installation plan. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue that includes texts by Enrique Juncosa, Guillermo Solana, and Fernando Gómez de la Cuesta.

Peter Halley's emergence around 1980 rectified the tradition of 20th-century abstract-geometric art, which until then had been dominated by idealist and formalist conceptions, placing it in a social context. For the pioneers of abstraction, geometry embodied an ideal rationality endowed with utopian value; in both his painting and his critical and theoretical essays, Halley reinterpreted geometry as a means of confinement and social control, with dystopian features. The square, which had been the object of a quasi-religious cult from Malevich to Josef Albers, was humorously transformed into his icons of prisons, cells, and conduits. And in his compositions reminiscent of integrated circuits and flowcharts, Peter Halley anticipated the society of the digital age, marked simultaneously by systematic isolation and total interconnection. With his use of a fluorescent (Day-glo) color palette, which evokes the energy of electronic screens, Halley has distinguished himself as one of the most daring and experimental colorists of our time.

Peter Halley began as a radical independent artist and has worked to this day without the support of a mega-gallery, collaborating in each country with gallerists with whom he has a long-standing relationship of trust. Our exhibition highlights the exceptional reception his work has enjoyed in Spain for almost 40 years.

Peter Halley en España
Ground Floor and Mezzanine
March 22 – May 25
Curator: Guillermo Solana
Co-produced with the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum

ACTIVITIES:

Pensar la pintura  
Conversation with Peter Halley, Guillermo Solana and Enrique Juncosa
March 21 at 7 p.m at Es Baluard Museu d'Art Contemporani

El quadrat màgic
Family visit and workshop at the Peter Halley exhibition
Saturday, March 29 at 11 a.m. at Casal Solleric

An explosion of color

Family visit to the Peter Halley and Markus Linnenbrink exhibitions

Bright, saturated, fluorescent, striking colors! There are countless colors that surround us. On this tour, we'll discover the favorite colors of artists Peter Halley and Markus Linnenbrink and how they use them in their works! An explosion of colors that fills the courtyard and rooms of Casal Solleric. Led by Noelia Gómez, cultural mediator.

Saturday, May 24 at 11:00 a.m.

Registration at solleric@palma.es