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An exhibition? In 1977 I started working with Pérez Sánchez on the exhibition on Antonio Pereda and Madrid painting of his day. At that point everything relating to insurance, transport, etc., – just as exhibitions have today – was my responsibility. I arrived in the morning and he dictated the letters that we sent out to potential lenders.
I remember he wanted a painting and he thought that during the war it had been in a particular collection. He said he would like to have it for the exhibition as he knew it from a photograph. So I said, “Where is this family?”. They were in Vitoria. At the time we had a switchboard and a telephone operator, Sonsoles Fernández, who had all the Spanish telephone directories. I asked for the Vitoria one and I looked up the name he had told me of the man in question. We drew up a standard letter which I sent out to everyone with that surname; not many people, about 30 or so. Fortunately, they replied. It happened that the person who owned the painting had studied art history and had been one of Pérez Sánchez’s students, so it all added up and the painting was included in the exhibition. I was his typist although he did everything and had all the responsibility: writing the letters, applying for insurance, all the works that had to be insured, writing the catalogue entries, etc. All the routine part of an exhibition was my responsibility. But I was perfectly happy with that. I really enjoyed the exhibitions and they gave me a big boost. Really, a positive one. They were challenges: “Let’s see if we can make this work”, followed by everyone being happy.
She joined the Museum as typist and secretary to the directors, then going on to the Documentation and Archives Area in 1973, where she is responsible for the systematic filing of reports from the Restoration workshop, among other duties.
Interview recorded on May 03, 2018
