An ultra-modern museum is due to open this spring in the Spanish city of Cáceres, and it will facilitate the expansion of one of Europe's leading private collections of contemporary art. The new Helga de Alvear Museum of Contemporary Art will enhance a smaller version of a museum that has been running on the site since 2010.
The museum first came about when German art collector and dealer, Helga de Alvear, moved to Madrid and became increasingly interested in the Spanish art scene. She acquired a collection of 3000 contemporary artworks over four decades, and decided to gift the collection to the Spanish region of Extremadura. The Helga de Alvear Foundation was established in November 2006 in response to Helga's wish to share her collection of art by more than 500 artists from five continents with the public.
She also paid for part of the newly-completed museum, with the balance funded by the Government of Extremadura, and it is expected to be an important European art destination when it opens. The museum will be free to enter and aims to be a platform for research, promotion and education of contemporary visual arts. The new building has been designed by Spanish practice, Tuñón Arquitectos, who added the modern white concrete extension to the original Casa Grande building, which houses the foundation and dates back to 1913.
A total of 17,000 square metres of galleries and exhibition spaces will display work by artists like Joseph Beuys, Dan Flavin, Paul Klee, Nan Goldin, Joseph Albers, Gordon Matta-Clark, Jenny Holzer, Philippe Parreno and Anish Kapoor. The galleries are wide and have a height of four-and-a-half meters, and there are three galleries with a height of nine meters to house large pieces.
The enhanced Helga de Alvear Museum of Contemporary Art is expected to open this spring, and further information can be found on its website here.
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