Balerdi

Bilbao Museoa is dedicating an anthological exhibition to the drawings of Rafael Ruiz Balerdi (San Sebastián, 1934 – Altea, 1992), one of the key figures of Spanish abstraction in the second half of the 20th century. The exhibition inaugurates the museum’s new 200 m² space for graphic works, drawings, and photography, sponsored by the Fundación Gondra Barandiarán. It is part of the museum’s reopening program following the expansion by Norman Foster and Luis María Uriarte.

The curator is historian Mikel Lertxundi, from the museum’s Archive and Documentation department. It brings together more than half a hundred works, mostly donated by the artist’s family in 2004. The project is part of the catalogue raisonné of Balerdi’s drawings being prepared by the museum together with the Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa.

Tour

• The chair series from 1955, from figuration to geometric abstraction.
• Portraits and self-portraits from 1958 of family members and friends, such as Amable Arias and José Antonio Sistiaga.
• Lyrical abstraction, informalism, and the tangles following his stay in Paris in 1960.
• Political and social thematic drawings after his return to San Sebastián in 1973.
• The animated film Los gigantes (1969), drawn frame by frame.

Practical Information

• Dates: from October 6, 2026 to February 14, 2027.
• Hours: Monday to Saturday (except Tuesday), from 10:00 to 19:00; Sundays, from 10:00 to 15:00.
• On Tuesdays admission is free, but it only grants access to the collections: temporary exhibitions are closed.
• General admission 12 €; reduced 6 €; free for visitors under 18 and Friends of the Museum.