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Manuel Augusto García Viñolas

Raúl Romero at the García Viñolas Donation – Mapfre Foundation Collections

In 2002, Manuel García Viñolas donated his collection of drawings to the Mapfre Foundation, and in gratitude, the foundation established with his name a memorable aid for the cataloguing and conservation of Ibero-American collections of drawings.

This is the story of a shared passion.

The mark of drawing in Spanish art

García Viñolas loved art and gathered a set of drawings that illustrate a brilliant era of Spanish art that goes from the second half of the nineteenth century, to the eighties of the twentieth century.

Most of the drawings in the collection are the work of contemporary artists of García Viñolas and with whom he sustained some kind of friendship or intellectual relationship as a result of his work as an art critic or writer. Artists like Benjamín Palencia, Genaro Lahuerta, Rafael Alberti, and also Raúl Romero.

“The common thread of these drawings is that each one transmits something special in the life of García Viñolas” “Each drawing was a gift. And each one reflects a memory, a memory and a friendship relationship, many of them with inscriptions dedicated to him. ” (Mónica Fuentes, of the Mapfre Foundation, pointed out to the El País newspaper.)

On the occasion of the donation of his valuable collection of drawings to the Mapfre Foundation, two volumes have been published with a singular tour of the personal profile of García Viñolas and the collection of drawings that he treasured throughout his life.

Volume I is called Said and Done. Plural portrayal of Manuel Augusto García Viñolas, and brings together a series of texts, previously published, that seek to extol the figure of the collector from different angles and points of view.

Volume II is the catalogue of the exhibition Donation García Viñolas. MAPFRE Foundation Collections, which includes all the works in the collection.

The figure of García Viñolas

He was one of the founders of NO-DO, director of the National Theatre, journalistic correspondent, cultural attaché in Brazil and Portugal, art critic, tireless globetrotter and passionate art collector.

And not only that.

Influential personality of the Spanish culture, very cultured and with a keen sense of aesthetics, he was a friend of intellectuals and artists of different signs and ways of thinking such as Federico García Lorca, Rafael Alberti, Dionisio Ridruejo, Gregorio Marañón, Salvador Dalí or Camilo José Cela.

He detained his eyes on the drawing when the work on paper barely interested anyone, and his passion managed to safeguard artists who otherwise would have been unfairly relegated to oblivion.

Metaphor of a friendship

The valuable set of drawings donated to the Mapfre Foundation is inexorably marked by the character of its collector. It says a lot about him, his original look, his taste and his commitment to certain artists.

The friendship united García Viñolas and Raúl Romero. They shared the passion for art.

For Raúl Romero, Viñolas was his main critic, in addition to his mentor. Because of friendship and admiration, he dedicated the series drawings in charcoal present in the Permanent Collection of the Mapfre Collection.

García Viñolas came to say of him: “Exciting brush. Maybe Raúl is the best artist I’ve ever met.

And now time gives value to the words of one of the most recognized art critics in recent history.

Do you dare to discover why?