The new Helga de Alvear Museum opens its doors in Cáceres
Cáceres has just entered the international artistic map through the front door and has done so thanks to the private collection of contemporary art of the gallery owner and philanthropist Helga de Alvear: "It could be said that it was the collection that found its place here, but also that it was Extremadura that made this the destination for the collection."
This is how the German collector, Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts 2008, explains how more than 3,000 works of art that she has been hoarding since the 1960s will become part of Extremadura's heritage and to be exhibited in the new Helga de Alvear Museum, which opens its doors to the public on Friday, February 26.
Portrait of the collector and philanthropist Helga de Alvear.
A NEW, AWARD-WINNING BUILDING
Around 200 artistic creations are waiting to be discovered by the public in the museum's inaugural exhibition, whose new building –designed by Tuñón Arquitectos– is a candidate for the Mies van der Rohe award for architecture and has already been awarded the Architecture MasterPrize.
A magnificent construction, in the words of Helga de Alvear, who acknowledges that the spaces were projected according to the collection, as it is known in advance by the Madrid studio. Let us remember that it was the architects Emilio Tuñón and the late Luis Mansilla who were in charge, more than ten years ago, of the rehabilitation of the Casa Grande, which has been the headquarters of what has been called the Helga de Alvear Visual Arts Center until now and to which the award-winning contemporary extension has joined.
Precisely the spatial limitations of the modernist palace of 1910 made it necessary to create the new annex exhibition building, which serves as a link between the historic center of Cáceres, a World Heritage Site, and the most modern part of the city.
Interior of the building with Ai Weiwei's 'Descending Light' in the background.
WORKS OF ART
At the Helga de Alvear Museum, finally, The large-format works in the collection will be able to surprise the world with their artistic grandeur, but also dimensional: “Now we have around 3,000 m² of exhibition space and even so it is too small for us. I am very excited that visitors can enjoy the work Descending Light (2007) by Ai Weiwei, an immense lamp made up of thousands of crystals assembled one by one. Or an installation by Thomas Hirschhorn (Power Tools, 2007), which has been exhibited only once at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg. Another by Olafur Eliasson, large-format photographs by Tacita Dean or Frank Thiel...”, explains the gallery owner, who has lived in Spain since 1959, with emotion.
Because just like that, with art and a lot of enthusiasm, “The same one shown by Miles Davis with So what, Cole Porter with What is this thing called love or Nelson Mandela himself in Invictus”, is how Helga de Alvear believes that the city of Extremadura will manage to attract visitors: “Cáceres, in addition to art and culture, offers gastronomy, nature and the opportunity to enjoy the tranquility, the time and space that no other place provides.”
'Snow White and the Ferocious Pollock' (1996) by Luis Gordillo, 'Pórtico de los Vocales' (1980) by Miguel Ángel Campano and 'Dense Stone Circle' (1982) by Richard Long.
“A” Award for collecting at ARCO 2017, the founder of the prestigious Helga de Alvear gallery in Madrid shows no preference for any of her acquisitions: “From the smallest, like a Klee watercolor, to the largest, like a Gordillo painting, they are all equally important to me.”
What to the profane seems unthinkable, if we take into account that in her first donation (207 works by 144 artists valued at 42 million euros) to the foundation that bears her name (integrated by the Junta de Extremadura, the Diputación and the City Council of Cáceres and the University of Extremadura) we can find from a drawing by Kandinsky to a first edition of Los Caprichos by Francisco de Goya (father of contemporary art, whose pictorial techniques were precursors of currents such as surrealism and expressionism).
The new building serves as a link between the historic center of Cáceres and the most modern part of the city.
ART AND EDUCATION
From Alvear, who was included among the 100 most influential people in the art world in 2010 and 2011 by Art Review, considers that it is not necessary to continue explaining what contemporary art is, “because art explains itself if it manages to interest us”, but she does see it as essential that children, from an early age, be inculcated with culture and the arts.
“We still have to get people to lose that fear of the unknown. In the museum many efforts are made in this regard with workshops and activities. They enjoy it very much, since they see art from a completely innocent and unprejudiced point of view. They don't need to understand anything to be able to enjoy it,” she says.
However, those who still need an explanation have it very easy thanks to the mobile applications launched a decade ago by the Cáceres institution, that allow virtual 'visiting' of the exhibitions and 'moving' through the interactive plans of the museum, as well as accessing the data of each work.
'Gräberfeld' (2008) by Tacita Dean and 'We the People (Detail)' (2011-2014) by Danh Vö.
“I have always chosen the pieces that I have fallen in love with and I am happy to finally have a space where I can show them and share them with other people”, confesses this expert who collects on impulse, as well as with criteria, and who **has never stopped surprising herself and enjoying art by visiting museums, galleries, fairs... **
Because, when asked if it is one who finds art or if it is art that ends up finding you, her answer is very clear: "For art to find you, you need to be looking for it." Something that we will undoubtedly do in Cáceres now that the new Helga de Alvear Museum is about to open its doors.
The new Helga de Alvear Museum opens its doors in Cáceres
Address: Calle Pizarro, 8, 10003 Cáceres See map
Telephone: 927 62 64 14
Half price: Free admission / Guided tours for groups and non-arranged visits that the Center makes available to the public are free.