A different story

When we started working on this magazine, one of the goals we set was to convey to readers the news and the most important developments that were occurring, both in ancient art as modern and contemporary. It seemed logical to think that these 'news' may affect today's artists more than those of past centuries. Perhaps we imagined that those were already well studied and little could be added to their biography or to the catalog of their work. We were wrong.

The recent published articles on two new Velázquez works, the discoveries about the juvenile stage of Ribera, or the story about the portraits of Juan Bautista Maíno signed by Leticia Ruiz in this issue demonstrate that in the art of the Spanish Golden Age there is not all told, and ongoing researches are revolutionizing the concepts and stereotypes that exist about this period of our history. It is also worth noting, as stated in the previous issue, how researchers are changing their profile and attitude. Specialization is already an irreversible fact.

Therefore we should not be surprising if names and last names change in the history of art which we have hitherto known. Or if it is enriched by new contributions and studies that give a twist to the clichés that we dealt with. The research and restoration techniques are part of this great revolution.

It is true that someone might think about a certain abduction of the past, that some things we learned when we were children do not work anymore, or that this work or the other is no more of that author. Maybe. But the fact remains that history, our art history, is so fantastic that can afford to surprise us every day with small or large developments which are a fundamental part of its appeal.

And if it is proving fascinating ancient art, the contemporary is even better. Michal Rovner, an Israeli artist almost unknown in our country, demonstrates a mastery of language as bright as committed. Without developing a genre art, she displays a disturbing feeling in her approaches to the Past: archeology, time, almost rock art. Approaching to her work is a recommended experience in a three-month period in which museums, galleries and foundations are going to see their faces with the hardest moment of crisis. Only from the imagination and the risk it is possible to win. You have to risk as does the Frieze fair, and as does the market, a real motor against any crisis. And as does the Prado with Maíno: What a very great exhibition!