MoMA RECEIVES MAJOR GIFT OF 90 WORKS OF CONTEMPORARY ART

FROM THE COLECCIÓN PATRICIA PHELPS DE CISNEROS, REINFORCING

THE MUSEUM’S ONGOING COMMITMENT TO COLLECTING, EXHIBITING,

AND RESEARCHING LATIN AMERICAN ART

Works from 48 Latin American Artists, Including Feliza Bursztyn, Alejandro

Cesarco, Mario García Torres, and Cinthia Marcelle, to Enter the Museum’s Collection

NEW YORK, January 10, 2018—The Museum of Modern Art announces that it has received a

major gift of 90 works of contemporary art from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros,

significantly enhancing the Museum’s holdings of contemporary works by Latin American

artists. Together with the establishment of the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute

for the Study of Art from Latin America in 2016, and the more than 140 works by Latin

American artists previously given to MoMA by Patricia and Gustavo Cisneros and the

Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, the new gift reinforces the longstanding relationship

between the Museum and the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and advances MoMA’s

commitment to exploring and fostering Latin American art and artists.

The gift includes works by 48 artists representing 10 Latin American countries: Argentina,

Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. In addition

to works by major artists already represented in MoMA’s collection, including Luis Camnitzer,

Gabriel Kuri, David Lamelas, Jac Leirner, José Leonilson, Cildo Meireles, and Miguel Rio

Branco, 24 artists have entered into MoMA’s collection for the first time, including Feliza

Bursztyn, Alejandro Cesarco, Eugenio Espinoza, Regina José Galindo, Mario García Torres,

Cinthia Marcelle, Claudio Perna, Amalia Pica, Wilfredo Prieto, Mauro Restiffe, José Alejandro

Restrepo, Yeni & Nan, and David Zink Yi. Two significant works addressing Latin American

histories and concerns, one by the German artist Lothar Baumgarten and one from New

Zealand artist Michael Stevenson, are also included in the gift.

Produced between 1967 and 2014 and acquired into the Colección Patricia Phelps de

Cisneros between 1985 and 2015, the works in the gift will be represented across four

different curatorial departments at MoMA: Drawings and Prints, Media and Performance Art,

Painting and Sculpture, and Photography. They join 40 works previously given by Patricia and

Gustavo Cisneros over the last 16 years, as well as the major gift from the Colección Patricia

Phelps de Cisneros in 2016, which added more than 100 iconic works of modern art by major

artists from Latin America to the Museum’s collection. Mrs. Cisneros is a longtime MoMA

Trustee and a member of several acquisitions and funding committees, including the Latin

American and Caribbean Fund, of which she is chairman and founder. 

While the core modern gift donated last year is renowned for its focus on geometric

abstraction, this contemporary gift reflects a shift by Latin American artists toward video,

performance, photography, and more participatory forms of art. These new additions to the

collection establish an important dialogue between an emerging generation of artists and the

Museum’s outstanding holdings of Latin American works in photography, media and

performance, and Conceptual art from the 1960s and 1970s.

“We are tremendously grateful to Patty Cisneros and the Colección Patricia Phelps de

Cisneros for this extraordinary gift of 90 contemporary works, which will embolden The

Museum of Modern Art’s commitment to contemporary practices in Latin America,” said

Glenn D. Lowry, Director of The Museum of Modern Art. “This gift, along with Mrs. Cisneros’s

generous gift in 2016 of 100 iconic works of modern art, serves to build bridges between the

landmark artists of the historical modern period and key voices emerging today, who continue

to reshape the legacy of Latin American art. MoMA is proud to add these multidisciplinary

works to further enrich our collection.”

The Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros’s mission is to advance scholarship and enhance

the appreciation of the diversity, sophistication, and range of art from Latin America. This

donation to The Museum of Modern Art is part of a global initiative that encompasses six

international institutions with whom the CPPC has a long association and a shared mission to

increase knowledge about art from Latin America in a global context. The gifts have been

selected in collaboration with the museums to amplify and strengthen their holdings, while

integrating new voices and artists into their collections. The other five institutions are the

Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI); the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas, Austin;

the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires; the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; and

the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid.

“MoMA’s engagement with contemporary art from Latin America started in 1931. Since that

time, MoMA has supported initiatives to foster the study and appreciation of art from the

region, and plans are underway to launch the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute

for the Study of Art from Latin America, which will provide a framework to continue and

deepen the Museum’s research programs,” said Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. “We are

confident that this gift will add new voices to a world-renowned collection that places the art

of Latin America in a global context.”

Today, MoMA’s collection includes more than 5,000 works by artists from Latin America.

Reflecting a strong focus on new technologies, archival practices, and models of global

thought, the gift will establish a critical base from which MoMA will continue to build a living

collection and embrace and champion new developments in art from Latin America.

In 2016, MoMA established the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute for the Study of

Art from Latin America, which has been conceived to generate an expansive approach to the

interpretation of modern and contemporary art from Latin America. The Cisneros Institute

will further develop the program of research conducted by the Latin American component of 

C-MAP (Contemporary and Modern Art Perspectives in a Global Age), which MoMA initiated in

2009, and will facilitate the initiatives of the Museum’s Latin American and Caribbean Fund in

providing for the research of works of art. These initiatives are also supported by the Patricia

Phelps de Cisneros Bibliographer for Latin America in the Museum’s Library. The

Bibliographer is an endowed position made possible by funds Gustavo A. Cisneros donated in

2010 to ensure that the extensive Latin American library holdings are available to scholars

and researchers.

The Museum will organize and present a major exhibition of modern works drawn from the

Cisneros gift within the next few years, and will publish an accompanying scholarly catalogue.

A digital exhibition that presents a selection of the extraordinary artworks that have been

given by Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, animated by the reflections of 16 MoMA curators can be

found at: mo.ma/cisneros