The BBK Art Route, an initiative of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum that has been active for five years, aims to bring art closer to the public by taking it out of the museum space and placing it in unexpected places, while also giving visibility to works from the collection that are often little known. It is a traveling exhibition that transfers the museum's heritage to the public space through a mobile device made up of high-quality panels that reproduce the works, accompanied by explanatory texts in Basque, Spanish and English, also accessible through a QR code. In this sixth edition, the common thread is the stories that have inspired artists of different eras and styles, from Antiquity to the present day. With the motto Stories, and under the curatorship of José Luis Merino Gorospe , curator of Ancient Art at the museum, a selection of 38 pieces is presented that address themes such as myths, faith, literature, memory or identity, and that use techniques as diverse as painting, sculpture, photography, video, collage and poster.
Sacrificio II, Idoia Montón (2021). Adquirit pel Museu de Belles arts de Bilbao
Among the selected works are interpretations of classical myths, such as those of Lucretia and Europa, which inspired 16th-century painters such as Lucas Cranach the Elder and Martin de Vos . Both chose to depict scenes of great formal beauty, avoiding the harshest moments of the original stories. Other pieces connect us with a more romantic view of the ancient world, such as the ruins of the Temple of Apollo in Corinth painted by Isabel Baquedano in the 1970s, or the evocation of an Assyrian frieze that Idoia Montón created after a trip to Kurdistan in 2019.
The Bible, as expected, has a prominent role. From Eve represented by Francisco Durrio in a ceramic medallion from the early 20th century, to the narrative of Noah in a Catalan Romanesque painting. Also present are figures such as Judith and Holofernes, Samson and Delilah, Lot and his daughters or Moses, with works by painters such as Orazio Gentileschi , José Echenagusía or Francisco Gutiérrez Cabello . In some cases, the interest lies in family tensions or the representation of power, and in others, in the expression of faith and sacrifice, as we see in the interpretations of Isaac or Job.
Escena en el templo de Apolo en Corinto, Isabel Baquedano (1980). Donació de Mayte Baquedano
The tour also includes portraits of saints who achieved great popularity, such as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, painted by Sofonisba Anguissola, or Saint Sebastian, revisited with pop culture touches by Andrés Nagel . Women like Cleopatra or Joan of Arc, and even modern icons like Marilyn Monroe, are also part of this collective imagination that art has been feeding over the centuries.
The exhibition, which can be visited until July 7, also focuses on the impact of literature and music on visual creation. This is the case of Tristan and Isolde (Death), where Rogelio de Egusquiza shows his fascination with Wagner's opera, or Idyll in Arratia, a work by Anselmo Guinea influenced by the stories of the writer Antonio Trueba . Finally, the proposal includes more current works where the narrative is born from personal experience. Artists such as Ana Laura Aláez and Itziar Okariz use the same image to explore intimate issues, showing how history can also be an exercise in introspection.
89019, Andrés Nagel (1989). © Andrés Nagel / Derwald Nagel, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2025