Cuenca, Fernando Zobel and the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art, a love story

We´d like to start the post apologizing for writing a bit late about our loved city of Cuenca, in Spain, and about the disruptive (this word currently and too oftenly used to name something that is countercultural, pioneering, courageous and challenging) painter and leader Fernando Zobel and the unforgettable Museum of Spanish Abstract Art in Cuenca.

Saeta, Fernando Zóbel

To talk about the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art of Cuenca (magnificently managed by March Foundation) means to talk about one of the most picturesque museums in the world for two reasons, the first one for its placement in the Hanging Houses (las casas colgadas) of Cuenca, right on the amazing cliffs of this beautiful city, a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1996, and the second one for its rigorous abstract art collection from the 50s and the 60s, gathered thanks to the concern of the great painter Fernando Zobel. The museum has got a permanent exhibition of 100 works of art, between paintings and sculptures by artists like Eduardo Chillida, Rafael Canogar, Cesar Manrique, Antonio Saura, Jorge Oteiza, Gustavo Torner and Fernando Zobel, among them.

Although he is widely known for being an art patron, Fernando Zobel was a great painter, an important figure to understand the Spanish art of 20th century.

Fernando Zobel was born in Philippines, where he studied Medicine and started painting due to an illness. Afterwards, he broadened his studies in Harvard where he met the members of the Painting School of Boston. Self-taught, he got to know the American abstract expressionism through his trips to United States as well as European informalism through France, Italy and Spain. From 1955, he began to collect works of the Spanish abstract artists from the 50s and the 60s as well as paintings and sculptures from his friends, taking into account that the great part of these artworks weren´t valued by the dictatorship and were sold abroad. His highest ambition was to gather all this art collection and to be able to show it to the public, with this purpose he was helped by Gerardo Vera and the artist from Cuenca Gustavo Torner, principal author to think of Cuenca as the ideal city to host an Abstract Art Museum. They chose, as the best placement for the Museum, the Hanging Houses of Cuenca (a medieval building from 15th century that is suspended overlooking river Huecar and that is a property of the City Council) to be used for being the deposit of this great collection of abstract art, that was finally open to public in 1966.

Fernando Zobel was honoured in 1980 with the Gold medal of merit in Fine Arts, the same year he donated his art collection to the Juan March Foundation that has managed the museum from that time, developing many tasks like the increasement of the collection through the purchase of more pieces, the refurbishment and redesign of exhibition spaces, including temporary exhibition areas.

Eduardo Chillida

Antoni Tapies

Fernando Zobel

Next year the museum will celebrate its 50th anniversary, there will be some expanded facilities taking into account that a part of the restaurant “Casas colgadas” is going to be annexed to the museum, what will suppose to have more space for performances, educational activities and cultural events. In spite of the works to add new spaces that will finish in the summer of 2016, the museum will keep on being opened to the public.