Jorge Rando Museum 📷 Malaga - Spain

The Jorge Rando Museum is the only museum of expressionist art in Spain. It is dedicated by the city council to this great painter.

It was inaugurated in 2014 and you can also find works of other painters who are related to this artistic current.

It is located next to the Monasterio de las Mercedarias, and was designed by the architect Manuel Rivera. It is considered to be of artistic interest.

As this building was previously part of the monastery, a 140-year-old mandarin tree planted by the founder of the monastery was kept in the courtyard when it was built.

This great work began in 2011 and was completed in 2014. It is an icon of expressionist art.

This place is mainly dedicated to the dissemination of Rando's work, taking into account his way of thinking as well as his philosophy.

On the other hand, the activity is also developed to investigate a movement of the western culture which is the expressionist poetics.

In the Rando Museum artistic activities such as sculpture, painting, cinema, music and others are developed.

Beyond art, it takes into account a humanistic and spiritual point of view.

Among its cultural activities, film events, concerts, painting, sculpture and sculpture are held and the entrance is free of charge. This is wonderful for everything related to art and culture that revolves around it.

The visits can be guided or unguided, and if you choose a guided tour, it is conducted by art historians and is more like an educational talk, where you can chat, discuss and where everyone is enriched.

For the construction of the site, the existing monastery, which consisted of old brick, was combined with modern concrete and steel construction.

In addition to the exhibition rooms for Rando's works, the museum consists of other rooms for the atelier, the courtyard, the library and others. The atelier is used as a place where artists can come to paint their works and not only that, but also to share talks.

The Jorge Rando Foundation is in charge of the organisation of all the activities that take place there as well as the administration.

According to Rando, the legitimacy of the museum depends on society itself and its cultural, humanistic and spiritual values.

In every corner of the place you can feel the love for art and also to let you see the reality, the truth that happens every step of the way in life.

All the activities are free of charge, even in the atelier if the artists do not have materials, they are provided for them. All this infrastructure is something I have never seen before in my life.

As I said before, the museum holds temporary exhibitions of national and international expressionist artists.

Rando's works are divided into different rooms, which deal with different themes and there is always diversity in them.

One of the most striking rooms on the first floor is the Soldiers' Room. It shows the reality of war, the suffering, especially of children.

You see many faces of soldiers in different colours, poses, some holding or rather saving children. It shows a reality and asks whether a world without war is possible.

It highlights the love, the faith in humanity and a lot of hope. If humans create this war, they can also end it. He believes it is possible.

When I go down to the lower level I find the beautiful garden, tables and chairs to sit at, the old mandarin tree and some beautiful sculptures.

These sculptures of people looking at the wall are very striking. They show hopelessness, tiredness, despondency, giving up, defeat. Rando has been making sculptures of this kind since the 1960s.

Then we find the room called ... descendit ad ínferos, where we can see butterflies which, according to Rando himself, descend to the underworld and his silent dialogue with them is shown.

It is a recurring theme in Rando's painting, in this case especially in black and white, with them he speaks of truth, war, peace, goodness, evil, beauty and many other things.

The butterflies respond with their fluttering wings to the painter's reflections.

Then I went into a very similar room called Las Mariposas (The Butterflies), and in these paintings he captures existentialist questionings, reflections. Rando himself says that the butterflies did not leave him and that those same butterflies also fought against the darkness like him.

They struggled in search of hope, joy and colour. In these paintings you can see a little more colour than in the previous room, as if there was an evolution.

From that same room I could appreciate the beauty of the courtyard, also called the Living Room of Art, really beautiful.

I then climbed a staircase that led me to several small, adjoining rooms.

One of these rooms showed the theme of prostitution and right next to it the maternity ward.

Another of the themes present in Rando is Africa and its children, showing malnutrition, hunger and war.

Opposite this I came across a room dedicated to Jesus Christ and many of his sayings in the Bible.

Further on another room exhibited beautifully coloured landscape paintings, I seemed to see flowers and different figures of gardens. There were also works about nature, both landscapes and human nature.

A museum worth visiting, especially for the philosophy it contains, the spirituality and the message of hope, love and faith in humanity.

Thank you all very much for joining me here. Best regards to all of you and see you next time.
Amonet.

_{All photographs are my own.
Separators created by me in Photoshop.
Used translator Deepl.com free version.
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