Page 36 - Contemporary Art and Old Masters

DONATIONS BY THE
FUNDACIÓN AMIGOS DEL
MUSEO DEL PRADO

Forty years of friendship.From Fra Angelico to Sorolla

Image of the exhibition galleries. Photo © Museo Nacional del Prado.
THE EXHIBITION

This exhibition acknowledges and pays tribute to the Since the Société des Amis du Louvre was founded in
ten of thousands of Friends who have offered their 1897 with the aim of “enriching the collections of the
support to the Museum. It does so by bringing together museum”, as stated in its statutes, the donation of works
for the first time all the works donated by the Fundación of art became a founding aim of the museum friends
Amigos del Museo del Prado and those it has participated associations which, taking the French example as their
in acquiring over the course of its four decades of model, began to proliferate first in Europe and soon after
existence thanks to the generosity of its members. in the rest of the world.

The Fundación Amigos del Museo del Prado was
established in December 1980. Although its founding
aims expressed in its statutes were broader in scope than
those of the friends of the Louvre, namely “Supporting
the cultural activities of the Museo del Prado, spreading
knowledge of it and contributing as far as possible to
the artistic holdings of its collection”, the Fundación
immediately set to work to contribute to the Museum’s
essential core: its collection. This endeavour has
continued to the present day, as the four sections into
which the works in the exhibition are divided reveal,
illustrating the different ways in which the Fundación
has contributed to enriching the Prado’s holdings, often
through formulas that distinguish it from other donors.

FROM THE FUTURE TO THE PAST
In 1991 the Fundación invited twelve contemporary
artists to create a collection of graphic work inspired by
the Prado’s holdings. The decision to give living creators
a presence in the Museum, which took the form of the
first exhibition of 20th-century art ever to be held at
the Prado, was almost unprecedented at that time both
in Spain and abroad. In the words of Francisco Calvo
Serraller, who promoted the project, the exhibition
offered proof of “how the art of the old masters had
stimulated the creation of their own work, through which
the avant-garde continues the timeless mystery of art.”
Portrait of a Dwarf
An interest in adopting a unified gaze on the history of art
Juan van der Hamen y León (1596-1631) Oil on canvas. c.1626. Donated by the
Fundación Amigos del Museo del Prado and the Fundación Bertrán, 1986 and of revealing the connections between artists of the

36 WORLD of ART