The exhibition, organized by the National Archaeological Museum with the support of Acción Cultural Española, aims to be a commemoration of the centenary of the celebration in Spain of the exhibition "Spanish Prehistoric Art", a fundamental event in the study of prehistoric rock art, which is I celebrated in 1921 in the rooms of the old Museum of Modern Art, in the building that today is shared by the National Library and the National Archaeological Museum. The exhibition represented a qualitative leap in the assessment of the origins of Art and marked a way of telling it through which we have continued to travel to the present day. In this way, the current exhibition wants to reflect on how we can integrate art into the Museum's discourse and make its value and meaning understandable to new generations of visitors.
Prehistoric art has been recognized by UNESCO through the protection of a longstanding relationship of rock art sites around the world. Spain is one of the countries with the highest number of declared sites in this field. Since the pioneering declaration of the Altamira Cave (1985), later expanded to many of the caves with Palaeolithic art on the Cantabrian coast (2008), passing through the enormous list of sites in the Mediterranean arch with shelters of Levantine and schematic art (1998 ), completed with the cross-border declaration formed by the Côa Valley in Portugal (1998) and the Siega Verde area of Salamanca (2010), until the very recent declaration of the Cultural Landscape of the Risco Caído and sacred mountains of Gran Canaria (2019).
Prehistoric art has been recognized by UNESCO through the protection of a longstanding relationship of rock art sites around the world. Spain is one of the countries with the highest number of declared sites in this field. Since the pioneering declaration of the Altamira Cave (1985), later expanded to many of the caves with Palaeolithic art on the Cantabrian coast (2008), passing through the enormous list of sites in the Mediterranean arch with shelters of Levantine and schematic art (1998 ), completed with the cross-border declaration formed by the Côa Valley in Portugal (1998) and the Siega Verde area of Salamanca (2010), until the very recent declaration of the Cultural Landscape of the Risco Caído and sacred mountains of Gran Canaria (2019).
