THE REINA SOFÍA ACQUIRES WORKS BY MINUJÍN, LIZARAZO AND ECHEVERRI AT ARCO FOR ITS COLLECTION
The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía has announced the acquisitions made during the ARCO fair, through which both the institution and the Ministry of Culture expand the museum’s collections. Among the artists whose work is now part of the Madrid-based institution are Argentine artist Marta Minujín and Colombian artists Juan Pablo Echeverri and Luz Lizarazo—three figures with different career trajectories who bring a distinct Latin American perspective to a list of acquisitions largely focused on Spanish artists.
Sin título are the two serigraphs by Marta Minujín (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1943) that have been added to the museum’s collection, which will soon dedicate a monographic exhibition to her. Part of her work from the 1970s, to which these two graphic pieces belong, centered on themes of sexual liberation and the female body. The acquired works contain a high degree of explicitness in their depiction of sex and pleasure, using genitalia as a reference and employing flat pink colors with a pop aesthetic. They align with the museum’s ongoing research into transgression and feminism.
miss fotojapón #7 and #8 is the most extensive series by Juan Pablo Echeverri (Bogotá, Colombia, 1978 – ibidem, 2022) and serves as a concise representation of his visual poetic vision. In this work, Echeverri took self-portraits every day from 1996 until his death, mainly using a photo booth, with the initial intention of documenting his research into makeup and hairstyling. However, as the series evolved, it became an end in itself, rooted in the everyday.
A highlight of the Latin American presence at ARCO was the work of Luz Lizarazo (Bogotá, Colombia, 1966), as well as the bold decision of her gallery to feature installation art, a medium that is becoming less common. Her installation Piel extendida, created with stockings to intervene in architectural space through its expansion, explores themes of femininity from a perspective that also delves into intimacy and sensory experience. Acquired for the Reina Sofía collection, its presence reinforces the museum’s research focus on the body as a political instrument.
These three Latin American artists join works by Laia Abril, Elena Blasco, Ángela de la Cruz, Victorina Durán, Agnes Essonti Luque, María Luisa Fernández, Josep Grau-Garriga, Raquel Manchado, Mónica Mays, Robert Morris, Maribel Nazco, Mònica Planes, Carlos Rodríguez-Méndez, and Marina Vargas. Like Minujín’s works, theirs were acquired with funds from the Ministry of Culture for a total of €398,499. Meanwhile, works by Judy Chicago and Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, along with those of Luz Lizarazo and Juan Pablo Echeverri, were purchased by the Museo Reina Sofía for €99,500. This selection of acquisitions strengthens the museum’s political research lines and its commitment to addressing overlooked or absent narratives in the historiography of the period at the core of its collection.
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