The Permanent Commission of the Royal Board of Trustees of the Reina Sofía Museum has approved the acquisition of a set of 26 works, by 18 artists, for a global value of approximately 400,000 euros, which have been contributed by the Ministry of Culture and Sports.
Of the total of these 18 artists, more than half are the work of women –a total of twelve–. Thus, the works belong to Cecilia Bengolea, Gabriela Bettini, Cabello/Carceller, Lucía C. Pino, Diego Del Pozo, Ana Esteve Reig, Anaïs Florin, Marisa González, Ana Jotta, Lea Lublin, Karlos Martínez, Asunción Molinos Gordo, Jaume Sans , Rosa Torres, Joaquín Torres-García, Damián Ucieda and Javier Utray.
As the museum has explained, these works –which cover different artistic disciplines (installation, video, painting, photography, collage)– will become part of the Collection and belong to different generations of artists.
On the one hand, there are historical figures like Torres-García; also creators with consolidated careers such as Marisa González or Rosa Torres; or younger artists whose work has been acquired in the last three years.
This Friday, February 24, the Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, has referred to the criticism of the Ministry by the Association of Women in the Visual Arts in response to the previous acquisitions of his department –allocating only according to this 7% association to works by women artists and the rest to works by men–.
“I was very surprised, because last year half of the works acquired by the ministry in ARCO were made by women and this year, who already know that the minister does not decide but a commission, they have told me that it will be a higher percentage than last year, which was half and half”, Iceta explained before this announcement, recalling that close to 400,000 euros are allocated to these purchases.
Regarding the lack of initiatives in ARCO in terms of parity, the minister stressed that women “still face too many obstacles for their works to be known and valued”. “Not only at this fair, but in general, even in the cinema, although we are in a moment of effervescence and the emergence of female talent”, he remarked.