#000215
Museo de Arte Abstracto Español, Cuenca
This is a catalogue of the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español - the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art - in Cuenca, one of the most beguiling small museums in Europe. Installed in the medieval "Hanging Houses" that cling to a gorge above the old city, the museum was created by the painter and collector Fernando Zóbel and opened in 1966 to champion the abstract Spanish art of the 1950s and 60s - artists like Antoni Tàpies, Antonio Saura, Eduardo Chillida, and the El Paso group. Zóbel gave the collection to the Fundación Juan March in 1980, which has run it ever since. The catalogue reproduces the collection and sets it in the story of Spain's postwar artistic awakening. For readers interested in modern Spanish art, or in the rare marriage of avant-garde painting and medieval architecture, it is a lovely window onto a singular place.
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The subject
The Museo de Arte Abstracto Español opened in Cuenca in 1966, the creation of the Manila-born painter and collector Fernando Zóbel, with Gustavo Torner and Gerardo Rueda. Housed in the dramatic Casas Colgadas (Hanging Houses), it has been called one of the most beautiful small museums in the world.
The book
As a museum catalogue, it presents the collection - concentrated on Spanish abstraction of the 1950s and 1960s, including Tàpies, Saura, Chillida, Millares, and the El Paso circle - alongside the history of Zóbel's founding vision. Since 1980 the museum has been managed by the Fundación Juan March.
How to read it
Approach it as both an art catalogue and a portrait of a place, where the setting - medieval houses over a ravine - is inseparable from the paintings they hold.
For more context
See the Fundación Juan March's publications on Cuenca and on Fernando Zóbel for the fuller history.
Sources
- Type
- Exhibition catalog
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Art
- Location
- Colorado