07 May 2026
The Antonio Pérez Foundation hosts one of the most anticipated exhibitions of recent years starting this Friday: Pablo Palazuelo. An Inscribed Delight, an exceptional show dedicated to one of the great names of contemporary Spanish art. Curated by art theorist and critic Alfonso de la Torre, the exhibition will remain open to the public until September 21.
The exhibition brings together nine large-format paintings, three sculptures, and one of the artist’s last drawings by Pablo Palazuelo, offering a unique journey through the artist’s mature period. According to Alfonso de la Torre, “it will be possible to see a Palazuelo that has never been seen before in Cuenca.”
The selected works explore one of Palazuelo’s fundamental lines of research: the investigation of lines and planes as essential structures of abstract language. The large-scale works transform the Foundation’s chapel into “a temple of abstraction,” in the curator’s words, where geometry, rhythm, and visual energy engage in dialogue with the architectural space.
One of the most moving aspects of the exhibition is the inclusion of one of the artist’s final drawings. Even in the last years of his life, despite the physical limitations of age, Pablo Palazuelo continued working daily in his studio, drawing lines on paper until the very end. This drawing symbolically closes the exhibition and connects the vital and creative dimension of a body of work that continues to project itself into the present.
For Alfonso de la Torre, Palazuelo was an “extraordinary, total, and energetic” artist whose influence remains alive among new generations of creators. His legacy, far from ending with his passing, continues to hold a decisive relevance within contemporary art.
The connection between Pablo Palazuelo and Cuenca
The relationship between Pablo Palazuelo and Cuenca dates back to the late 1960s, when Fernando Zóbel invited him to join the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español shortly after its opening. From that encounter emerged Omphale V, an oil on canvas incorporated into the museum in May 1968 and still on view today.
As Alfonso de la Torre explains, that work reflects an artist who had already reached full creative maturity after evolving from Cubism toward abstraction. His return to Spain also coincided with a key moment for Spanish contemporary art, marked by the transformative role of the Museum of Abstract Art, which the curator describes as “the first democratic museum” of contemporary art in the country.
The last major exhibition dedicated to Pablo Palazuelo in Cuenca took place fifteen years ago with Pablo Palazuelo, Paris, 13 rue Saint-Jacques (1948–1968). However, An Inscribed Delight now focuses on the final decades of the artist’s production, considered those of greatest national and international recognition and essential for understanding the scope of his legacy.
More information about the exhibition
When: From May 8 to September 21, 2026
Where: Contemporary Art Center of Cuenca (Antonio Pérez Foundation, Cuenca)
Curator: Alfonso de la Torre
