Museo de Arte Abstracto Español

Historia

The Museo de Arte Abstracto Español is a museum in Cuenca, Spain established in 1966. It has a collection of some 129 paintings, mainly by 1950s and 1960s Spanish artists.HistoryIn 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 in 1981, Castilla-La Mancha's Medal of Honor in 1991 and its "Tourism" Award in 1997.

"The Museum of Spanish Abstract Art in Cuenca permanently exhibits a collection of paintings and sculptures by Spanish artists from the abstract generation of the 1950s and 1960s, which shaped some of the most significant abstract trends in art in Spain in the mid-20th century. The museum opened its doors on July 1, 1966, as a result of the initiative of Fernando Zóbel Manila, 1924-Rome, 1984, who in 1980 donated his collection to the Juan March Foundation. Since then, this institution has increased and completed it with its own funds and through the acquisition of new works. It is located in the Casas Colgadas in the city of Cuenca, in a very unique medieval building from the end of the 15th century."