Museum trip: Nicanor Piñole Museum (Gijón)

The Nicanor Piñole Museum is located very near our place here in Gijón and we walked by it many times, not knowing it was a museum. There is also a decrepit yet very intriguing house you can see in the above picture, to the left, that we now want to buy and rehab (a pipe dream, but fun nonetheless to think about).

We stopped by the Tourist Information office here in Gijón soon after our arrival, and they provided us with a map, which included the art galleries and museums of Gijón, and while Gijón is not known for its museums, there are many smaller ones that can be done in an hour or so, which seems to be just the right amount of time to enjoy most museums. After finding the Nicanor Piñole Museum on the list, we made a beeline to it, as it took less than five minutes to arrive there. But, alas, it was closed due to Covid, so we had to wait until July.

The museum consists of two floors with three-four main rooms per floor, highlighting the works and life of Nicanor Piñole, an Asturian painter and artist, who lived in Spain and Italy and returned to Gijón once Franco took power in the early 1940s. The museum featured a lot of his art, as well as a recreated room from his house (which my Dad would love, and I took a video, but couldn’t email because it was too big a file, so I’ll show him in person). Here are some pictures, and I especially like the furniture and the detailed work on each drawer; just stunning (see below).

There was also an exhibit detailing the art that comprised the labels of the canned fishes that came from Asturias, usually featuring women welcoming one to try the contents of the cans. While this may sound boring, the art is anything but. It reminds me of the art that be found on olive oil cans that come from Spain and Italy today. Many women also worked in the canning factories, and thus inspired the artwork. Check out the pictures below:

If those pictures did not entice one to eat the canned fish held inside, then that person is not an art lover (or lover of fish). The Nicanor Piñole Museum was an excellent visit and highly recommended.