The Grotesque Factor

What is the grotesque in art? At times it has been described as the exaggerated, on occasion compared to the deformed, and at others to the satirical or even the incongruous.  Museo Picasso Málaga takes a close look at the subject in The Grotesque Factor, an exhibition that examines the meaning and evolution of this category of aesthetics at various points in Western art history.

The Grotesque Factor, shows over 270 paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings, books, documents and fragments of film have been gathered together for this exhibition. Works by some 70 artists, who include Francis Bacon, Louise Bourgeois, Otto Dix, James Ensor, Max Ernst, José Gutiérrez Solana, Victor Hugo, Paul Klee, Willem de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein, René Magritte, Man Ray, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, Juan Muñoz, Meret Oppenheim, Pablo Picasso, Richard Prince, Juan Sánchez Cotán, Antonio Saura, Thomas Schütte, Cindy Sherman, Leonardo da Vinci, Bill Viola and Franz West. The works are technically and formally diverse and are seen on display together here for the first time. They share with one another an element of the grotesque, which has been defined in this exhibition as an artist’s view of the world, a mindset that has been expressed in very different ways over the years.

The exhibition is curated by José Lebrero Stals, artistic director of MPM. The academic advisor is Luis Puelles, professor of Aesthetics and Art Theory at the University of Malaga. This project will be possible thanks to the loans and generosity of private collections and art galleries, and the close involvement of museums in Europe and America.