Out of Focus. Another View of Art.

Monet's series of water lilies introduced the concept of blur in art, of the blurry and imprecise as expressive elements.

September 17, 2025 - April 12, 2026

This exhibition explores how this phenomenon provided a new way of understanding the world for later artists, a key to a reinterpretation of part of modern and contemporary visual art.

Long considered a paragon of abstract painting, this series has also been a precursor to large-scale immersive installations. However, the blurry and out-of-focus effect that characterizes the vast expanses of water in the canvases had never been analyzed and is now considered a genuine aesthetic choice.

Starting from the aesthetic roots of blur in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and following the intellectual, scientific, social and artistic upheavals with which Impressionism grew, the exhibition is structured in sections that mix paintings, videos, photographs and installations by different artists such as Alberto Giacometti, Gerhard Richter, Mark Rothko, Eva Nielsens, Claude Monet, Thomas Ruff, Alfredo Jaar, Soledad Sevilla, Christian Boltanski, Mame-Diarra Niang and Bill Viola, among others.

Localization

Name of the place: CaixaForum Madrid

Phone Number: 91 330 73 00

E-mail: icaixaforummadrid@magmacultura.com

Opening hours: Monday to Sunday and public holidays, from 10:00 to 20:00.

Address: Paseo del Prado, 36, 28014 Madrid