Collages by Mª Ángeles Merín in an exhibition on St John of the Cross

On Tuesday 23 June, an exhibition on ‘Juan de la Cruz, el minimalismo místico’ opened at CITeS in Avila. This exhibition is a simple yet daring endeavour that uses various forms of artistic expression and audiovisual techniques to explore the essential works of this Carmelite saint. 

With a distinctly educational focus, the exhibition is on display in the corridors of CITeS, forming part of the day-to-day activities of this University of Mysticism. At the opening, the Carmelite friar Juan Antonio Marcos highlighted the effort to offer different perspectives and experiences, ranging from an initial biopic to the final contemplative segment. ‘This is not a journey for tourists seeking pleasure,’ he stated, ‘but for pilgrims of the soul.’ The journey, he emphasised, ends in love, which is why the exhibition concludes with the image of Our Lady of Tenderness. 

The works on display come from a variety of sources; some form part of CITeS’s own collection, while others include oil paintings and drawings by Luciano Díaz-Castilla, inspired by the poetic and symbolic universe of St John of the Cross, and a collection of collages by María Ángeles Merín, in which she interprets St John’s poems in an original and evocative manner under the title ‘Fragments of the Soul’. 

The collages 

María Ángeles Merín, a member of the TA and an artist with a prolific body of visual art and prints, has found collage to be a means of expressing, with simplicity and vitality, our deepest spiritual quests—such as those described by the mystic in his poems. 

‘As I engaged with the poems of St John of the Cross, I felt the need to interpret them through visual art, primarily by using colour and textures and by employing the technique of collage; through this, I have created compositions in which verticality predominates to represent the transcendence and the sensations the soul experiences on its ascending journey towards union with God,’ says Merín. 

Through elements such as dots, lines, the plane, colour and textures—in their various forms, some smooth and others featuring graphic patterns or folds to create different textures—the artist captures “the emotions I have felt while reading the poems at leisure, offering a glimpse of all that they express: movement, light, peace, passionate love, hushed silence, dark night, hope, death in life, taking flight. In short, all that which is ineffable in the search for God, as expressed by our mystics”. Ha reinterpretado cinco poemas de los que aquí se presentan cuatro: “Llama de amor viva”, “Noche oscura”, “Coplas del alma que pena por ver a Dios”, “Sin arrimo y con arrimo”.

She has reinterpreted five poems, four of which are presented here: ‘Living Flame of Love’, ‘The Dark Night’, ‘Stanzas of the soul that suffers with longing to see God’, ‘Without support yet with support’. 

To view the collages and poems in PDF format, click on the image of the collage. 

María Ángeles Merín (pictured with J.A. Marcos) already has several previous works on Teresa of Ávila on permanent display at CITeS. 

Double centenary 

The exhibition opened as part of the conference on ‘Mysticism: Paradise Lost or Promised Land’ and aims to “bring the public closer to the richness of a legacy that continues to illuminate our times through the power of the essential.’ 

As you walk through the exhibition, in addition to the works by the aforementioned artists, you will find concept maps, symbolic posters and audio-visual resources. One of its centrepieces is a series of 12 videos based on ‘Sayings of Light and Love’. There are enlargements with QR codes, which present, in language accessible to today’s visitors – with a little help from AI – the journey through the four major works of St John of the Cross: ‘The Ascent’, ‘The Night’, ‘The Living Flame of Love’ and ‘The Spiritual Canticle’; as well as a selection from the ‘Sayings…’. 

The exhibition is open to visitors until September, and we highly recommend a visit. It also forms part of the double anniversary of St John of the Cross being celebrated in 2026: John of the Cross was canonised on 27 December 1726; two hundred years later, on 24 August 1926, Pius XI proclaimed him a Doctor of the Universal Church. 

TA Info.