There will not have been a more bitter exit for someone who has been exactly everything in contemporary Spanish art than the one that Manuel Borja-Villel –Manolo for friends and enemies, who have not lacked– starred two months ago. After 15 years directing the Museo Nacional Reina Sofía and turning it, like the Fundació Tàpies and the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona before it, into a global point of reference, he left through the back door.
And, depending on where one was reported, become a renewed outlaw in office in fraud of law. He did not care that, elected by the PSOE, his renewals were decided by the PP, a sign of the consensus that he aroused. And, why deny it, from his renowned diplomacy, which he led collectors to deposit an avalanche of paintings in their museums during these years.
But when, at the end of 2021, Manolo rearranged the Reina collection, including the 20th-century worker magazines and the 15-M banners, the cheers turned into a fierce media campaign, another of the 21st-century culture wars, with articles that They accused him of being a “dictator” and a “podemita”. And the Queen, of “cathedral of populist dogmas.”
As his possible renewal in office approached, the headlines went by “Borja-Villel has gone crazy”. Crazy and in fraud of the law, cover to cover – a medium dedicated five to him, nor Pedro Sánchez – he threw in the towel. The international art world signed in his favor, but he was already leaving for the São Paulo Biennial. He now returns to the Barcelona that he made shine. And perhaps the Reina Sofía will have better luck than the Tàpies and the Macba after him.
