“PAINTED MUSIC” DISPLAYS THE WORK OF ENRIQUE OCHOA AT THE INSTITUTO CERVANTED IN VIENNA

  • First exhibition outside Spain of the so-called “painter of music” since his death in 1978.
  • Develop with the institutional collaboration of the Instituto Cervantes, the Spanish Embassy in Austria, the Austrian Ministry of Culture and with the support of Kaiserwetter, MasMóvil and the Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo Foundation.

From the 10th November to the 1st February, the Instituto Cervantes in Vienna welcomed the exhibition entitled “Painted Music”, conceived and organised by the Enrique Ochoa Foundation. This was a new exhibition intended to give an appreciation of the work of the painter, artist and humanist Enrique Ochoa (1891 - 1978), coinciding with the 125th anniversary of the artist’s birth.

A total of 35 wotrks were on display, the main axis of the exhibition being 31 pen and ink drawings dedicated to Frederic Chopin. Also on display were “The Sunken Cathedral of Debussy” (oil on canvas, painted in 1962, and title page for the exhibition), “Symphony no 9 by Beethoven” (oil on canvas, 1939) and “Stravinski’s Firebird” (oil on canvas, 1944) and a self-portrait of the artist dated 1940.

The exhibition counted on the collaboration of the Instituto Cervantes itself, the Spanish Embassy in Austria andthe Austrian Ministry of Culture, with support from Kaiserwetter, MasMóvil and the Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo Foundation.

As José Estévez, President of the Enrique Ochoa Foundation, explained “ this first exhibition of Ochoa’s work outside Spain since his death in 1978 has some relationship with the work of the great Viennese painter Gustav Klimt. Modernism and Woman are the two axes uniting these two great artists. Both Ochoa and Klimt were Romantics in nature and form. Trained according to the principles of classical art, both were excellent draughtsmen, which we can appreciate in this exhibition at the Instituto Cervantes, thanks to Ochoa’s extensive production of sketches and illustrations”.

The Enrique Ochoa Foundation is commemorating in 2015 and 2016 the 125th anniversary of the artist’s birth and we have organized a series of exhibitions, concerts and conferences. We should note in particular the exhibition “The Ochoa Woman” at the Museo Cerralbo in Madrid, which welcomed over 25,000 visitors, “Ochoa, Painted Music” in the Museo Principal de El Puerto de Santa María and now this exhibition in Vienna.

Additionally, throughout this year, the Enrique Ochoa Foundation has also joined the ce;lebration of the 100th anniversary of the death of the great Nicaraguan poet, journalist and diplomat Rubén Darío (1867 - 1916). Enrique Ochoa was the illustrator of his “Complete Works” and the Foundation has collaborated in two exhibitions – “Rubén Darío: a story in paper fragments”, organized along with the Complutense University in Madrid (UCM) and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID), as well as “ Blue…way beyond colour” organized by Monart, Contemporary Art in the Royal Monastery of Santo Tomás de Avila.

ENRIQUE