Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Donates 202 Works to Six Museums

Six museums have received 202 works as part of a large donation from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC), the foundation created by ARTnews Top 200 Collectors Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Gustavo A. Cisneros. The donation to institutions in Latin America, the United States, and Europe continues the CPPC’s tradition of sharing its collection around the world—in this case contemporary and experimental works created since the 1960s by 91 artists from 22 countries—and follows two other marquee donations over the past year and half.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York will receive the largest lot, with 88 works. The other institutions include the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas in Austin (which will receive 45 works), the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid (39 works), the Bronx Museum of the Arts (12 works), the Museo de Arte de Lima in Peru (ten works), and the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires in Argentina (eight works).

“My husband Gustavo—always a proponent of a global outlook—and I have made the integration of culture from Latin America into the wider narrative of art history the goal of the CPPC from its inception,” Phelps de Cisneros said in a statement. “To that end, over the past four decades we have lent works, supported and organized exhibitions, provided opportunities for education and for international scholarly exchange, published books and catalogues, and built a comprehensive website about art and ideas from Latin America. The donation of contemporary artworks continues to further this overall goal.”

In October 2016, MoMA received 102 works, mainly of geometric abstraction, from the CPPC, and also established an eponymous research institute focused on the study of Latin American art at the museum. In a conversation with MoMA director Glenn Lowry at the time, Phelps de Cisneros said, “This is not about our collection. It’s not about me—it is about the museum, but it’s mostly about the artists. I truly believe that all of these artists have been under-recognized and need the recognition and can easily fit into the canon of art history.”

With the latest gift, the Cisneroses have now donated around 230 works to MoMA over the past 40 years. The newest donation includes work by 48 artists from 12 countries, with a concentration on Latin American artist’s wide-ranging experiments in video, performance, photography, and participatory art. The 88 works include a mix of artists already in MoMA’s collection—including Luis Camnitzer, David Lamelas, Jac Leirner, and José Leonilson—as well as 24 artists who will enter the collection for the first time, among them Regina José Galindo, Mario García Torres, Amalia Pica, and Wilfredo Prieto.

Last June, the Blanton Museum in Texas received 83 works of colonial Latin American art produced between the 17th and 19th centuries, as part of a 119-work, five-institution gift by the CPPC that also included a work going to the Museo de Arte de Lima in Peru. The Blanton gift includes several works by Pia Camil, Mariana Castillo Deball, Leda Catunda, and José Gabriel Fernández.

As part of its aspiration to spread knowledge of the artists in its collection, the CPPC produced a series of videos discussing its gift to each institution: MoMA, Museo de Arte de Lima, the Reína Sofia, the Bronx Museum, the Blanton, and Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires.