Image: Botin Centre, Santander
Centro Botín in Santander has opened 'Punto y contrapunto', a permanent exhibition of works from Jaime Botín’s personal collection that brings together 14 major 20th-century artists. Installed in Sala de exposiciones 1, the display is described by the museum as a core part of its exhibition programme, offering a structured view of the aesthetic, ethical and formal relationships that shaped modern art and continue to resonate in the present.
The exhibition presents works by Spanish and international artists associated with some of the century’s most important movements. According to Centro Botín, the selection includes Manolo Millares, Pablo Palazuelo, Antoni Tàpies, Joaquín Sorolla, María Blanchard, Juan Gris, Joan Miró, Pancho Cossío, José Gutiérrez Solana, Isidre Nonell and Daniel Vázquez Díaz, alongside Francis Bacon, Henri Matisse and Mark Rothko. The museum frames the group as spanning the age of the avant-garde and the post-Second World War period.
Rather than arranging the works as a chronological survey, the display emphasizes contrasts in tone, texture and style. Centro Botín says the paintings and other works enter into a visual dialogue in which each retains its individuality while also participating in a larger collective history of art. The exhibition text highlights the way these artists, from abstraction to figurative and expressive painting, could know, influence or oppose one another across different artistic positions.
The museum also links the exhibition closely to Jaime Botín Sanz de Sautuola y García de los Ríos, who lived from 1936 to 2024. Centro Botín describes him as a committed lover of the arts with broad knowledge and a particular sensitivity, noting that he collected works on the simple condition that the painting itself interested him and felt close to him. The institution further says the works in the room testify to his social and philanthropic commitment.
According to the museum, the collection on view has been generously entrusted to Centro Botín by Jaime Botín’s heirs. The exhibition is presented as the heart of the centre’s programme because, in the museum’s wording, it helps explain intergenerational relationships in art and the formal and ethical exchanges that led toward contemporary practice. The show is curated by Mª José Salazar.
'Punto y contrapunto' is on view as a permanent exhibition in Sala de exposiciones 1 at Centro Botín in Santander. General admission is listed at €9, with group tickets at €7, while Amigos del Centro Botín and holders of the Pase Cántabro may enter free of charge.
