HE Thyssen-Bornemisza unveils the first extensive retrospective of German artist Andre Butzer outside his home country. Spanning works created between 1999 and 2022, the show marks the artist’s 50th birthday year, highlighting his unmistakable visual language that blends pop sensibility with abstraction. Across the selection, viewers encounter a dialogue between vivid imagery and experimental formal shifts that have defined Butzer’s career.
Two recent additions enrich the core body: Blanca and Borja Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection piece Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (2010) and Untitled (2022). The exhibition also features a major survey piece, Lucian Freud, presented as one of the museum’s most anticipated highlights this year. The curatorial thread titled New Perspectives closes on June 18, presenting fifty works that reflect seven decades of European art, tracing the evolution of a leading mid-to-late 20th century sensibility through to contemporary practice.
Meanwhile, Museo Gran Vía 15 introduces a bold departure from classical museum norms. This new venue blends contemporary art installations with a showroom space where curated objects are available for purchase, forging a dynamic intersection between exhibition and retail. The project positions the space as a hybrid model, inviting visitors to engage with art in multiple modes of reception and collection.
The inaugural gesture is Walking Life, a large-scale installation by Okuda San Miguel, which sets a playful yet expansive tone for the space and signals a willingness to mix monumental sculpture with immersive environments.
June also marks the final month to experience Wise Look, a survey by Francesc Català-Roca at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Museum of San Fernando. The show, framed around the centennial of the photographer’s birth, gathers a selection of his well-known images from private collections alongside works housed by the Academy, offering a rich overview of his contribution to 20th-century visual culture.
Finally, on the 28th a new national museum opens its doors: the Royal Collections Gallery. Located adjacent to the Royal Palace and the Almudena Cathedral, the museum showcases a rotating selection from National Heritage, ensuring that roughly one-third of the pieces will cycle in and out. The inaugural display features more than 650 works, spanning paintings, decorative arts, historical photographs, and tapestries, including standout pieces such as Velázquez’s White Horse and Caravaggio’s Baptist-Headed Salome, charting a comprehensive panorama of a nation’s cultural patrimony.