Museo de Arte Abstracto Español en Cuenca

The ''Museo de Arte Abstracto Español'' (Museum of Spanish Abstract Art) is a museum in Cuenca, Spain established in 1966. It has a collection of some 129 paintings, mainly by 1950s and 1960s Spanish artists.

History

In 1961 artist Fernando Zobel began looking for a suitable location for a museum of abstract art, and in June 1963 his friend, the artist Gustavo Torner, suggested the Hanging Houses of Cuenca as an appropriate site. The building is owned by the City of Cuenca, which rented it for a symbolic amount. Restoration and renovation of the building was necessary, and was carried out by local architects Fernando Barja and Francisco Leon Meler. The Museum of Spanish Abstract Art opened on July 1, 1966, with Gerardo Rueda as curator and Zobel and Torner as co-chairmen. The core of the new museum's collection were a dozen sculptures and a hundred paintings which Zoebel had previous collected, something less than half of which were initially exhibited, with the intent of rotating the permanent exhibition. With a focus on quality rather than quantity, and not attempting to host an exhaustive survey of Spanish abstract art, the Museum does not encourage gifts of works they would not otherwise have chosen. In 1978, the museum expanded under the direction of architect Barja, reopening on November 28 of that year. Two years later, in 1980, Zobel donated the museum's collection to the Juan March Foundation, which added it to its own collection, and took over the management and finances of the museum. That same year, the museum received the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts from the Spanish Ministry of Culture. It also received the European Museum of the Year Award, given by the

European Council The European Council (informally EUCO) is a collegiate body that defines the overall political direction and priorities of the European Union. It is composed of the heads of state or government of the EU member states, the President of the E ...

in 1981, Castilla-La Mancha's Medal of Honor in 1991 and its "Tourism" Award in 1997."Museo de Arte Abstracto Espanol"
on the Fundación Juan March website Further physical improvements in 1994 provided a special room for temporary exhibitions, and the museum continued to expand its collection – including the donation by Zobel of over 3,000 specialized books. It now has 1,500 works in its collections, of which 515 are painting or sculptures. An average of 40,000 people visit the museum each year.

Artists in the permanent collection

* Rodrigo Antonio Calistro Díaz * Joaquín Rubio Camín * Rafael Canogar * Eduardo Chillida * Martín Chirino * Modest Cuixart * Guillermo Delgado * Francisco Farreras * Luis Feito * Amadeo Gabino * José Guerrero * Joan Hernández Pijuan * Antonio Lorenzo *

César Manrique César Manrique Cabrera ( or ) (24 April 1919 – 25 September 1992) was a Spanish artist, sculptor, architect and nature activist from Lanzarote. Early life Manrique was born in Arrecife, Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands. His father G ...

* Manuel Millares Sall * Manuel Hernández Mompó *

Lucio Muñoz Lucio Muñoz (27 December 1929 – 24 May 1998) was a Spanish abstract painter and engraver. Biography Muñoz was the son of Lucio Muñoz, a shopkeeper, and Nicolasa Martínez. Born on 27 December 1929 in Madrid, he was the youngest of tw ...

Jorge Oteiza Jorge Oteiza (October 21, 1908 – April 9, 2003), was a Basque Spanish sculptor, painter, designer and writer from the Basque Autonomous Community, renowned for being one of the main theorists on Basque modern art. Oteiza was born in ...

* Pablo Palazuelo * Manuel Rivera * Gerardo Rueda *

Antonio Saura Antonio Saura Atarés (September 22, 1930 – July 22, 1998) was a Spanish artist and writer, one of the major post-war painters to emerge in Spain in the fifties whose work has marked several generations of artists and whose critical voice is ...

* Eusebio Sempere *

Pablo Serrano Pablo Serrano Aguilar, (8 March 1908, Crivillén, Teruel – 26 November 1985, Madrid) was a Spanish abstract sculptor. Personal life 1920–1925. Pablo Serrano studied as a boarder in the Escuelas Profesionales Salesianas in Sarriá (Barcel ...

Antoni Tàpies Antoni Tàpies i Puig, 1st Marquess of Tápies (; 13 December 1923 – 6 February 2012) was a Catalan People, Catalan painter, sculptor and art theorist, who became one of the most famous European artists of his generation. Life The son of Jo ...

* Jordi Teixidor * Gustavo Torner * Manuel Viola * José María Yturralde * Fernando Zobel

References

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Arte Abstracto Espanol Museo de Arte Abstracto Espanol Museums in Castilla–La Mancha Modern art museums in Spain Art museums established in 1966 Museo de Arte Abstracto Espanol Cuenca, Spain