Hot Days: 50 Paintings and a Chair

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Set in a space that will be architecturally designed by Tusquets himself, the exhibition will feature a series of oil paintings entitled Hot Days, portraying female nudes in a sequence of erotic, provocative poses. “Eroticism, which at various times throughout Western history inflamed painting and literature, and later cinema, theatre and dance, has these days almost disappeared, the victim of banality and its use in commerce and advertising, which has stripped it of its once disturbing and rebellious nature [...] That is why it is surprising that Oscar Tusquets Blanca has managed to suffuse these images, all of them of great pictorial beauty, with this disquieting, disturbing spirit of true eroticism that fires both the desires and the imagination.” - Mario Vargas Llosa (2010 Nobel Laureate)

The exhibition will also include the worldwide presentation of two limited edition, award-winning Gaulino chairs designed and customised by Tusquets, along with a table and four chair set by BD Barcelona. “How fantastic to design in wood having designed so many things using metal tubes or profiles. You can vary the thickness and give each section just the material it needs on the grounds of statics and aesthetics. The beautiful grain of the ash is left visible, so that every chair is different from the others, and this diversity is accentuated with the irregularities and creases in the leather of the seat. The chair took on a shape that was reminiscent of Antoni Gaudí and the 50s Italian designer Carlo Mollino. For that reason...we decided to call it Gaulino.” - Oscar Tusquets Blanca

To coincide with the exhibition, Tusquets will also present a limited edition Art Book, published in collaboration with Umberto Allemandi. Produced as an edition of 200 copies, the book will include an introductory essay by 2010 Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, with each copy featuring a personalised watercolour by Tusquets on the title page.