The Reina Sofía added 404 works last year worth 10.6 million euros

Madrid. The Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum incorporated 404 works last year worth 10.6 million euros (222.4 million pesos) from 130 artists, including Juan Genovés, Salvador Dalí, Joan Fontcuberta, Victoria Civera, Manuela Ballester and Ángela de la Cruz, and foreign artists such as Judy Chicago, Giuseppe Campuzano, Marta Minujín and the emerging Palestinian artist Lara Salous.

Although the additions come from donations and the works that the Reina Sofía Museum Foundation has deposited in the museum itself, the art gallery and the Ministry of Culture have purchased another 81 works for a total amount of 2.4 million euros. These acquisitions have been carried out for the most part thanks to an extraordinary contribution from the Ministry of Culture of 2,206 million 389 euros for the Reina.

Although the venue highlights that 58.6 percent of the money invested has been dedicated to pieces by female artists, they only represent 34 percent of these purchases. Thus, the Reina Sofía together with Cultura would have acquired works by 12 women compared to 23 men.

The Reina Sofía Collections grow especially in three ways: purchases with financial resources from the museum itself and transfer of works to the institution; acquisitions with economic resources from the Ministry of Culture, which include both purchases at the ARCO fair and auctions approved by the Board for Qualification, Valuation and Exportation of Historical Heritage Assets, and the deposits of works from the Reina Sofía Museum Foundation, both acquisitions and donations.

We have also sought to include pieces by creators who were not yet represented or who were insufficiently represented, in addition to works that can establish a dialogue with other works already present in the museum. “We have sought to nourish the plot lines that the Reina already follows, such as making visible the work of artists who fight for gender, racial or cultural equality, expanding the possibilities of representation of the collections throughout the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st,” adds the art gallery in a statement.

A screen by Dalí, among the additions

Among the museum’s 81 acquisitions is a screen that Salvador Dalí made at the age of 19 on behalf of his sister with Asian reminiscences – bought at auction; a portrait of José de Togores; a still life by Celso Lagar; three works by Alexandre de Riquer from Catalan modernism and the work 1920’s indolence by the also Catalan Ramón Jou Senabré.

He has also purchased works by Maruja Mallo, Delhy Tejero, Esther Boix, Carmen Pagés, Amèlia Riera, Judy Chicago, Isidoro Valcárcel, Isaac Díaz Pardo, Manuel Colmeiro and Urbano Lugrís.

Regarding donations, it has received 249 pieces from 42 artists whose value amounts to 3.65 million euros. Juan Genovés is represented with six new works delivered by the Genovés family and the family business Trabajo ETRA. They also include works by Soledad Sevilla, Juan Uslé, Miguel Benlloch, José Luis Tirado, Chus Burés, Alberto García Alix, Cees Van Gelderen, 19 from the Baez-Tavárez Collection with works by Ernest Lothar, George Hausdorf, Joan Junyer Pascual-Fibla and José Vela Zanetti, as well as the Ignacio Gómez de Liaño Archive.

In addition, an attempt has been made to recover the work of women artists such as the ceramist Mercedes Amat, with two murals made jointly with her husband, Jacint Bofarull, in 1965 and 1966, donated by the family. From the painter María Roësset, from the Juana de Aizpuru Gallery, comes a small sculpture of an initial Cristina Iglesias, and from Laia Abril’s collection, three works from the series On Rapepart of the extensive and acclaimed photo essay on rape as a result of La Manada’s aggression.