The Blanton Museum of Art will receive a gift of 45 works of contemporary art from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.
The Blanton is one six institutions to receive donations from Phelps de Cisneros, her foundation announced today. In all Phelps de Cisneros gifted 302 pieces from her collection with the Museum of Modern Art receiving 102 of them.
Phelps de Cisenros is on the MoMA board. She is also a longtime supporter of Blanton. Last year her foundation donated works of colonial art to the University of Texas museum.
“The Blanton is known for its longstanding and comprehensive collection of art from Latin America and for its dedication to furthering scholarship and interdisciplinary study in the field of Latin American art, said Patricia Phelps de Cisneros in a press release. “This latest gift, on the heels of a gift of Colonial art in 2017, will expand the Blanton’s burgeoning collection of contemporary art from Latin America and further its mission to showcase the diversity of artistic traditions in the region.”
Only three of the new gift’s 20 artists are currently represented in the Blanton’s permanent collection. Included are artists from eight Latin American and Caribbean countries with a majority from Venezuela, where Phelps de Cisneros originally is from.
Artists represented include Mateo Manuare, Claudio Perna, Leda Catunda, Mariana Castillo Deball and Mateo López.
The Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros is based in New York. It was founded in 1970 by Phelps de Cisneros and her husband, Venezuelan media magnate Gustavo Cisneros.
In 2007, the Blanton mounted the major exhibition “The Geometry of Hope: Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection’.”
Read an interview with Phelps de Cisneros, who discusses her life of collecting, from the launch of the 2007 show.
The Blanton is a pioneer in collecting Latin American art in the United States. In 1988, the museum became the first in the United States to establish a curatorial position devoted solely to Latin American art.
