Patricia "Patty" Phelps de Cisneros is a Venezuelan art collector and philanthropist who focuses on Latin American modernist and

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...

from Brazil, Venezuela, and the Río de la Plata region of Argentina and Uruguay. Since the 1970s Cisneros has supported education and the arts, with a particular focus on Latin America. Along with her husband, Gustavo A. Cisneros, she founded the New York City and Caracas-based Fundación Cisneros. In the 1990s the Fundación's primary art-related program became the

Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) is a privately held Latin American art organization based in Venezuela and New York City founded by Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Gustavo Cisneros. History In the 1970s, during Patricia Phelps de ...

. In 2016, Cisneros donated 102 modern and contemporary artworks from the 1940s to 1990s to the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, establishing the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute for the Study of Art from Latin America at MoMA.

Early life and education

Cisneros was born in Venezuela to Miriam Louise Parker and William Walter Phelps, a businessman. Her paternal great-grandfather was a noted businessman and

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

William H. Phelps, Sr. William Henry Phelps Sr. (June 14, 1875 – December 8, 1965) was an American ornithologist and businessman. One of his sons, William H. Phelps Jr., was also an ornithologist, and collaborated with him. William Phelps was the founder of the Willia ...

In 1953, William Henry Phelps and his son

William H. Phelps Jr. William Henry Phelps Jr. (December 25, 1902 – August 13, 1988) was a Venezuelan ornithologist and businessman. Early life He was born in San Antonio de Maturín, a town located in Monagas, Venezuela. Along with his father, William Henry Ph ...

started the first radio station in Venezuela, Radio Caracas Televisión Internacional (RCTV Internacional). Cisneros graduated from

Wheaton College, Massachusetts Wheaton College is a private liberal arts college in Norton, Massachusetts. Wheaton was founded in 1834 as a female seminary. The trustees officially changed the name of the Wheaton Female Seminary to Wheaton College in 1912 after receiving ...

in 1969. She received a BA in Philosophy from , where she studied the educational philosophy of

Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found applicat ...

. In 2003, Wheaton College awarded her an honorary degree. She was an MA candidate at

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-United States Secretary of the Treasu ...

’s Gallatin School, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the

Graduate Center of the City University of New York The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the ...

in 2015.

Career

In her twenties, Cisneros became the founder and director of the language department of the Simon Bolívar University, Caracas. There, she developed an innovative audio-visual approach to teaching foreign languages. She also worked with Accion International and was a founding contributor of AVEPANE (Asociación Venezolana de Padres y Amigos de Niños Excepcionales). Through the Fundación Cisneros, Patricia and Gustavo Cisneros launched a number of education initiatives: in Venezuela, a literacy program called ACUDE benefited over 300,000 citizens, and the Centro Mozarteum provided scholarships to young people to study classical music. The Fundación Cisneros also created Cl@se, an educational television channel that reached over two million homes from Argentina to Mexico; AME, an international professional development program for teachers conducted through distance-learning; and Piensa en Arte, a methodological model for teaching critical thinking skills. From 2014 to 2017, the Fundación Cisneros provided professional development in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic with the online platform called Tu Clase, tu país.

Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

In the 1970s, during her travels across Latin America with her husband, Cisneros spent her time visiting artists in their studios and seeing art in local galleries and museums, and began actively purchasing and collecting artwork. Primarily collecting indigenous work during frequent expeditions through Venezuela, especially around the

Orinoco The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wor ...

in the Amazon River Basin. As her collection grew, Cisneros saw that Latin American art was under-represented in the international art community, so the

(CPPC) was formed in the 1990s, with a goal of bringing visibility and impact to the way Latin American art history is viewed and appreciated. That effort has included a four-pronged approach: An ambitious approach to lending artworks around the world, working with scholars and academics to learn more about the artists and their works, the creation of a publications program to provide supporting information about the artists and their work, and building an online forum for the artwork. The CPPC is best known for its collection of Modernist geometric abstraction from Latin America and also comprises holdings of Latin American landscapes by traveler artists to Latin America in the 17th to 19th centuries; furniture and art from Latin America's colonial period; contemporary art from Latin America; and an important group of art and artifacts from indigenous peoples of Venezuela's Amazonas region, the Orinoco Collection. The mission of the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros is to enhance appreciation of the diversity, sophistication, and range of art from Latin America. Gradually, Cisneros began acquiring geometric abstract artwork that had been under-appreciated. It gradually grew into a significant holding of 20th century Latin American abstract art. She has appeared on “top collector lists every year since 1998. Cisneros has been lending her collections to international exhibitions and institutions since 1999. Cisneros credits her understanding of the importance of stewardship as a collector to her great-grandfather, William H Phelps, who meticulously cataloged his ornithological collection. She has said that her aesthetic developed as a result of having grown up in the modernist society of Caracas in the 1950s and 1960s. Cisneros has had a long-term relationship with the

in New York. The 2016 donation of 102 modern and contemporary Latin American artworks from the 1940s to 1990s to the

, which establishes the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute for the Study of Art from Latin America at MoMA, join the previous donation by Colección Cisneros of over 40 other previously donated works. The gift is meant to be transformative and impactful on how Latin American art is valued and recognized globally. The gift includes works by Lygia Clark,

Lygia Pape Lygia Pape (7 April 1927 – 3 May 2004) was a Brazilian visual artist, sculptor, engraver, and filmmaker, who was a key figure in the Concrete art, Concrete movement and a later co-founder of the Neo-Concrete Movement in Brazil during the ...

Jesús Rafael Soto Jesús Rafael Soto (June 5, 1923 – January 17, 2005) was a Venezuelan op and kinetic artist, a sculptor and a painter. His works can be found in the collections of the main museums of the world, including Tate (London), Museum Ludwig (Germany ...

Alejandro Otero Alejandro Otero (El Manteco, Bolívar, March 7, 1921 — Caracas, August 13, 1990) was a Venezuelan painter of Geometric abstraction, a sculptor, a writer and a cultural promoter. He was a founding member of the Los Disidentes group. Early lif ...

, and

Tomás Maldonado Tomás Maldonado (25 April 1922 – 26 November 2018) was an Argentine painter, designer and thinker, considered one of the main theorists of design theory of the legendary Ulm Model, a design philosophy developed during his tenure (1954–1967) ...

. Additional highlights are works by Willys de Castro, Hélio Oiticica, Juan Mele, Mira Schendel, and Gego. The Cisneros Institute will be located in a dedicated space at the current MoMA campus in midtown Manhattan. In January 2018, it was announced that more than 200 artworks, many from contemporary artists, would be donated by the collection to six institutions with whom Cisneros has had long-term relationships: the

; the

Bronx Museum of the Arts The Bronx Museum of the Arts (BxMA), also called the Bronx Museum of Art or simply the Bronx Museum, is an American cultural institution located in Concourse, Bronx, New York. The museum focuses on contemporary and 20th-century works created by A ...

; the

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía The ''Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía'' ("Queen Sofía National Museum Art Centre"; MNCARS) is Spain's national museum of 20th-century art. The museum was officially inaugurated on September 10, 1992, and is named for Queen Sofía. It ...

in Madrid, Spain; the

Museo de Arte Moderno The Museo de Arte Moderno (Museum of Modern Art) is located in Chapultepec park, Mexico City, Mexico. The museum is part of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura and provides exhibitions of national and international contemporary a ...

in Buenos Aires, Argentina; the Museo de Arte de Lima in Lima, Peru; and the

Blanton Museum of Art The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art (often referred to as the Blanton or the BMA) at the University of Texas at Austin is one of the largest university art museums in the U.S. with 189,340 square feet devoted to temporary exhibitions, permanent coll ...

at the University of Texas, Austin in Austin, Texas. The gifts include works by

Amalia Pica Amalia Pica (born 1978 in Neuquén, Argentina) is a London-based Argentinian artist who explores metaphor, communication, and civic participation through sculptures, installations, photographs, projections, live performances, and drawings. Early ...

, Jac Leirner,

Luis Camnitzer Luis Camnitzer (born November 6, 1937) is a German-born Uruguayan artist, curator, art critic, and academic who was at the forefront of 1960s Conceptual Art. Camnitzer works primarily in sculpture, printmaking, and installation, exploring topic ...

, and

Regina José Galindo Regina José Galindo (born August 27, 1974) is a Guatemalan performance artist who specializes in body art. She was born in Guatemala City. Early work Remarkably, for an artist who is known for the political themes of her work, Galindo grew up ...

Personal life

She married

Gustavo Cisneros Gustavo Alfredo Jiménez de Cisneros Rendiles (born 1 June 1945) is a Venezuelan businessman and Chairman of ''Grupo Cisneros''. Early life and education Cisneros is the son of Diego Cisneros and Albertina Cisneros (née Rendíles Martínez). ...

in 1970 in St Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. They have three children: Guillermo Cisneros, Carolina Cisneros de Rodríguez, and

Adriana Cisneros Adriana Cisneros Phelps de Griffin (born 17 December 1979) is a Venezuelan businesswoman, and the CEO of Grupo Cisneros, a privately-owned media, entertainment, digital media, real estate, tourism resorts, and consumer products company. She is a ...

, who is CEO and Vice Chairman of

Grupo Cisneros Grupo Cisneros is a privately held, family owned business headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida, historically based in Venezuela, with a focus on Latin American and Spanish-speaking people worldwide. It is a conglomerate of media entertainment, ...

Boards and memberships

;Current work * 1986–present:

Americas Society The Americas Society is an organization dedicated to education, debate, and dialogue on the Americas. It is located at 680 Park Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and was established by David Rockefeller in 1965. The Americas Society pr ...

(New York, New York). Cultural Council Committee * 1992–present:

(New York, New York). Trustee; 2006: Founder and Chair, MoMA's Latin American and Caribbean Fund; Member of other MoMA Committees * 2001–present:

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

(Cambridge, Massachusetts). Committee to Visit the Harvard University Art Museums * 2011–present:

Museum Berggruen The Berggruen Museum (also known as the Berggruen Collection) is a collection of modern art classics in Berlin, which the collector and dealer Heinz Berggruen, in a "gesture of reconciliation", gave to his native city. The most notable artists o ...

(Berlin, Germany). International Council * 2015–present: The Feuerle Collection (Berlin, Germany). Founding member, International Ambassadors * 2015–present: Círculo Internacional de la Escuela de Música Reina Sofía, Museo Reina Sofía, (Madrid, Spain). International Patron * 2016–present: Fundação Bienal de São Paulo,

São Paulo Art Biennial The São Paulo Art Biennial (Portuguese: ''Bienal de São Paulo'') was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennale (in existence since 1895), which serves as ...

(São Paulo, Brasil). Founding International Advisory Board member * 2017–present:

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

(Boston, Massachusetts). Member, Denman Waldo Ross Society at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston * 2020–present:

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

(Cambridge, Massachusetts). Member; 2020: Council; 2021 ;Past work * 1970-1980: Museo de Bellas Artes (Caracas, Venezuela). Board member and member of the Friends of the Museo de Bellas Artes * 1980-1983: Just One Break (JOB) (New York, New York). Board Member * 1985-1993: New York Botanical Garden (New York, New York). Board member * 1986–2017:

(New York, New York). 1981–2017: Board of Directors; 1985–2017: Chairman's International Council * 1987-1990: Sinfonietta Caracas (Caracas, Venezuela). Advisory Board * 1991: Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía, Museo Reina Sofía. Founding Patron * 1992-1996:

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

(New York, New York). Chairman's Council * 1994-2011:

(Cambridge, Massachusetts). 1994: Founding board member; 1998-2011: Advisory Committee,

David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Founded in 1994 by then-President Neil L. Rudenstine and alumnus David Rockefeller, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) is an inter-faculty initiative of Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy Lea ...

* 1997-2000: Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery,

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

(Austin, Texas). Latin American Advisory Group * 1997-2003: Programa Andes Tropicales (Mérida, Venezuela). Founding member, Board of Directors * 1998-2012: Casita Maria (New York, New York). 1998-2008: Board member; 2008-2012: Chairman's Council * 2003-2014:

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

(London, England). 2003-2014: Founding member of Latin American Acquisitions Committee; 2003-2008: International Council * 2004-2006:

UBS UBS Group AG is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres ...

(New York, New York). Art Advisory Board * 2004–2020:

Aspen Institute The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1949 as the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. The institute's stated aim is the realization of "a free, just, and equitable society" through seminars, policy programs ...

(Aspen, Colorado). 2004–2020: Art Advisory Committee; 2004-2010: Society of Fellows, Presidential level * 2007–2017: Patronato Internacional del Museo del Prado,

Museo del Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

(Madrid, Spain). Founding International Trustee * 2009-2017: International Committee of International Council of Museums (ICOM) for Museums and Collections of Modern Art (CIMAM). Founding Member * 2011-2014: American Friends of the Fondation Beyeler, Beyeler Foundation (Basel, Switzerland). Member * 2011-2014: Association Centre Pompidou América Latina,

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

(París, France). Founding Member * 2012–2020: Fundación Museo Reina Sofía, Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, Spain). 2012–2020: Founding Patron; 2015–2020: Nominating and Governance Committee

Honors and awards

* 1986: Order of Andrés Bello (Caracas, Venezuela) – Granted by Venezuelan government in recognition of contribution to the cultural development of the country (en reconocimiento a su contribución al desarollo cultural de país), Band of Honor, first class * 1986: Order of Good Citizen (Caracas, Venezuela) − Granted by City Council of Caracas for community leadership * 1991: Order of Francisco de Miranda (Caracas, Venezuela) – Granted by Venezuelan government to citizens who have exemplified outstanding merits (logros excepcionales como ciudadano) * 1999: Order of Simón Bolívar, Venezuela * 2000: Leone d’Oro di San Marco, awarded to the Colección Orinoco program area of the Fundación Cisneros * 2002: Cross of

Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

– Granted by Republic of France * 2003:

Wheaton College Wheaton College may refer to: * Wheaton College (Illinois), a private Christian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois * Wheaton College (Massachusetts) Wheaton College is a private liberal arts college in Norton, Massachus ...

(Norton, Massachusetts), Honorary degrees in Fine Arts * 2005: Recipient, medals of Honor – Granted by Ministry of Culture, Colombia for work in promoting education and culture in Latin America (2 medals: Senado de la República, Orden del Congreso de Colombia en el grado de Cemendados; and Camara de la Democracia Simón Bolivar en el grado cruz de comendador) * 2008:

(New York, New York), Americas Society's Gold Medal * 2008:

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture is an artists residency located in Madison, Maine, just outside of Skowhegan. Every year, the program accepts online applications from emerging artists from November through January, and selects 65 t ...

(New York, New York), The Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Award for Outstanding Patronage of the Arts * 2010: Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture (New York, New York), The Iris Foundation Award * 2013: ArtTable (New York, New York), Distinguished Service in the Arts award * 2013: The Gran Cruz de la Orden Civil de Alfonso X el Sabio – Granted by

Monarchy of Spain , coatofarms = File:Coat_of_Arms_of_Spanish_Monarch.svg , coatofarms_article = Coat of arms of the King of Spain , image = Felipe_VI_in_2020_(cropped).jpg , incumbent = Felipe VI , incumbentsince = 19 Ju ...

(Spain) * 2015:

Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bellas Artes The Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts ( es, Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bellas Artes, link=no) is awarded by the Ministry of Culture and Sport of Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escud ...

– Granted by Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte de España (Spain) * 2015:

(New York, New York), Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters Degree * 2017: Premio Iberoamericano de Mecenazgo (Madrid, Spain) * 2017: Independent Curators International, Leo Award * 2018:

The Olana Partnership ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...

(New York), The Frederic Church Award * 2019: Revista ARS (Madrid, Spain), Premio Arte y Empresa, awarded for Best Donation.

Works and publications

References

External links

Patricia Phelps de Cisneros
at

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cisneros, Patricia Phelps de Patricia Phelps Venezuelan philanthropists Living people Madeira School alumni Venezuelan art collectors Recipients of the Legion of Honour Year of birth missing (living people) Wheaton College (Massachusetts) alumni