The Fine Arts celebrates 100 years of the Museum of Modern Art, the patronage of the Sota and Chillida family face to face with Godofredo Ortega

How many lives can cross paths throughout an entire century? Countless. Or not. In a three-in-one as beautiful as it is emotional, the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum directed by Miguel Zugaza Yesterday was an afternoon of festivities and celebrations, with people crowding everywhere and being delighted with what they saw. Throughout the month of June, three luxury exhibitions have been held. With Entreacto, the centenary of the creation of the Bilbao Museum of Modern Art by Aurelio ArtetHere is his career until he joined the Museum of Fine Arts; the Sota family, which reconstructs another historical episode of great importance for the Basque artistic fabric: the collection and patronage of the family of the Bilbao businessman Ramon de la Sota (Francisco de Goya’s extraordinary Witches’ Flight, loaned for the occasion by the Prado Museum, acted as a chronological axis…) and finally, the face to face between Eduardo Chillida and Godofredo Ortega Muñoz. The three exhibitions, seen in a chain, are a beauty.

Yesterday a crowd toured those lands on guided tours – there were two shifts and even so the rooms were packed… – with a championship cocktail in the gardens. They enjoyed all of this Carmen Gomezof the foundation Godofredo Ortega; Luis Chillida, Ramón de la Sotathe vice president Ibone Bengoetxea who was showered with congratulations; the general deputy of Bizkaia, Elixabete Etxanobe; the mayor of Bilbao, Juan Mari Aburto, Leixuri Arrizabalaga, Gonzalo Olabarria; the general director of BBK, Gorka Martínez; Javier González Duranawho was the one who proposed the face to face between Chillida and Godofredo; Txema de la Sota, Javier de la Sota, Mikel Chillida, the film director Pedro Olea; the counselor Bingen Zupiriawhom Miguel Zugaza thanked for his work for Basque culture; Oihane Galdona, Rafael Orbegozo, Teresa Ampuero, Ane Gomeza, Jon Ruigómezdirector of Itsasmuseum; Álvaro and Luis Javier Díez de Lezana, Begoña Atxalandabaso, José Julián Bakedano, Luis Eguiluz; the bibliophile notary José María Arrriola, Rosa Lerchundi, Gerardo Elorriaga, Mikel Zubia, Venancio Echevarría and a legion of proper names that did not miss the opportunity to enjoy.

People came and went from room to room and they didn’t take their eyes off the garden either. There they met the president of the Bilbaina Society, Juan Goiria, Reyes Villanuevathe gallery owner Roberto Sáenz de Gorbea, Catalina Olabarri, José Ramón Urizar, Teresa Querejazu, Lorea Bilbaothe painter Anton Hurtado, Miren Troya, Raquel González, Eduardo Andrade, Esteban Goti; the original gallery owner, Emilia Epelde, Martin López, Ana Román, the artist Javier Balda, Jone Miner, the artist Edu López, Belén Greaves, Patricia Fernández, Maite AgirreUPV/EHU professor Mikel Onandia, Mirian Alzuri, Javier Novo, Marta Garcia Maruri, and so on until the afternoon is filled with curiosity.