Carmen Laffón. Themes and Variations

From 23 June to 27 September 2026, the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum will present a major exhibition devoted to the work of the painter and sculptor from Seville, Carmen Laffón, which features around 80 works, including oil paintings, pastels, charcoals and sculptures.

The project, curated by Paula Luengo, Curator and Head of Exhibitions at the museum, revolves around the very personal figurative world of Carmen Laffón (1934-2021). The central ideas or motifs in her work are constantly repeated throughout her career spanning more than sixty years between Madrid, Seville and Sanlúcar de Barrameda, often as variations on the same theme and in the form of modern series in her more mature stage.  

Around 80 works, including oil paintings, pastels, charcoals and sculptures (the latter from the mid-1990s onwards) are on display, organised by sections.  Each chapter is devoted to one of the most frequent classical artistic genres in her work (figures, still life and landscape) and to Carmen Laffon´s own iconographies, such as baskets, cupboards, vines, lime or limescale and salt mines.

Image Credit:

• Carmen Laffón. El Coto from Sanlúcar, 2005. Oil on Canvas. 110 x 200 cm. Private collection