Press RoomPhoenix Art Museum announces major gift of contemporary Latin American artworks from Nicholas Pardon, co-founder of renowned SPACE Collection
Phoenix Art Museum announces major gift of contemporary Latin American artworks from Nicholas Pardon, co-founder of renowned SPACE Collection
Dec, 21, 2018
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Phoenix Art Museum announces major gift of contemporary Latin American artworks from Nicholas Pardon, co-founder of renowned SPACE Collection
The gift of more than 100 works from the largest collection
of post-1990s Latin American abstract art in the United States increases the Museum’s
contemporary Latin American art holdings by 280%
PHOENIX (December 2018) –Phoenix Art
Museum is the recipient of a significant gift from Nicholas Pardon, co-founder
of the SPACE Collection, the largest collection of post-1990s abstract art from
Latin America in the United States featuring major works by artists recognized
as the pioneers of their generation. The gift includes 112 artworks by 49
artists from 14 Latin American countries and represents a 280% increase in the
Museum’s holdings of contemporary Latin American art. Previously, the Museum’s
Latin American art collection included approximately 40 contemporary artworks.
“We
are deeply grateful for this generous gift from Nicholas Pardon,” said Amada
Cruz, the Sybil Harrington Director and CEO of Phoenix Art Museum. “These significant
works from the esteemed SPACE Collection greatly diversify and strengthen the
Museum’s Latin American art collection, and we are very excited to share them
with our community.”
Co-founded
by Nicholas Pardon and assembled by art historian Cecilia Fajardo-Hill,
considered one of the world’s preeminent scholars of Latin American art, the
SPACE Collection was committed to expanding and inspiring understanding of
Latin American art across the globe through broad philanthropic initiatives.
The collection built on modernist
traditions and celebrated both traditional and non-traditional art forms,
including drawing, painting, collage, mixed-media work, site-specific
sculpture, and video installation, created by artists throughout Latin America.
Pardon’s
landmark gift to Phoenix Art Museum, which includes contemporary art created by
some of the most innovative artists working in Latin American today, is significant
in many ways. The gift adds depth to the Museum’s collection, strengthening its
holdings of artworks created in nations previously unrepresented, such as
Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay,
while also fundamentally fortifying the Museum’s collection of Argentine,
Brazilian, Cuban, Mexican, Peruvian, and Venezuelan art. Additionally, the
donated works update the Latin American art collection at Phoenix Art Museum, with
the majority created between 2001 and 2016. Finally, the significant gift of
abstract artworks provides even greater opportunities to foster new
understandings about Latin American art in the Phoenix community and beyond. Abstraction
as an art form has a long and lasting legacy in the Americas, building upon
modernist, concrete, op, and neo-concrete traditions that spanned the 1940s to
the late 1970s. Since the 1990s, Latin American abstraction specifically has
become a space for critical intervention on pressing social, political, and
cultural issues. The increased representation of abstract Latin American art in
the Museum’s collection will enable the Phoenix community to experience such
works.
“This
transformative gift represents a milestone in the history of the Latin American
art collection of Phoenix Art Museum,” said Vanessa Davidson, PhD, the Museum’s
Shawn and Joe Lampe Curator of Latin American Art. “These extraordinary
artworks will engender new understandings about what contemporary Latin
American art is and can be, enabling our community to engage with innovative
works created in the past two decades in many different media.”
The gift from Pardon places the
Museum within larger conversations in the art world about the global significance
of Latin American art. An exhibition featuring the newly acquired works is
anticipated in 2020 and will offer the diverse Phoenix community the
opportunity to learn about the many contributions of Latin American artists to
modern and conceptual art through the 20th century to today.
Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, PhD,
one of the most important scholars of Latin American art in the United States
and former curator of the SPACE Collection, will propose new ways of
interpreting and experiencing Latin American contemporary abstraction. See more information at phxart.org.
About Phoenix Art Museum
Phoenix Art Museum
has provided access to visual arts and educational programs in Arizona for
nearly 60 years and is the largest art museum in the southwestern United
States. Critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions are shown
alongside the Museum’s permanent collection of more than 19,000 works of American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern and
contemporary art, and fashion design. The Museum also presents festivals, a comprehensive film program, live performances,
and educational programs designed to enlighten, entertain, and stimulate visitors
of all ages. Visitors also enjoy vibrant
photography exhibitions through the Museum’s
landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography, University of
Arizona. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visitphxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.
