LOLA DEL CASTILLO Y MARÍA JESÚS PÉREZ VILAR. Iluminar el silencio

The CAAM collection reveals an inequality that has been entrenched for many years, which the museum is attempting to address by aligning itself with the goal of building a more equitable collection reflecting the reality of its time. This initiative aims to place female artists in their rightful place, and it begins now with a focus on the creators of the so-called Generación de los 70 in the Canary Islands.

In 2017, the CAAM presented Renovación y utopía. Colección CAAM at the San Martín Centro de Cultura Contemporánea, an exhibition of its own holdings comprised of a selection of works by key artists of the 1970s in the Canary Islands. Following this exhibition, the absence of female artists such as Lola del Castillo, Valme García Morán, Pepa Izquierdo, Elena Lecuona, and María Jesús Pérez Vilar—among others—in the CAAM’s collection became apparent, artists with whom these creators shared training or their first exhibitions. Since then, the Center has sought to investigate this context to bring visibility to those women who also participated in the spirit of renewal and utopia.

Through research, consultations in newspaper archives, visits to collections, and dialogue with the artists themselves, knowledge of this creative period is expanded, confirming that they were indeed among the names of exhibition spaces such as the Sala Conca, the Magda Lázaro Gallery, the Círculo de Bellas Artes de Tenerife, and the Casa de Colón, among others, where they regularly exhibited their work.

Iluminar el silencio is the first exhibition in a series that aims to build a collection, and therefore, an egalitarian narrative of art in the Canary Islands, addressing the gaps that currently exist within the CAAM holdings. The exhibition comprises two audiovisual pieces that introduce us to Lola del Castillo (Tenerife, 1952) and María Jesús Pérez Vilar (Santander, 1950), along with four paintings by each of them.