Museums of contemporary art must be the place for

meeting and reflection

Interview: Julio Ramón Sanz. IAACC Pablo Serrano Director, Zaragoza, and Curator of the Circa XX Pilar Citoler Collection

- By Antonio Mansilla

‘I like to see contemporary art as a reflection of the society in which it is born, therefore, I sincerely believe that current art is diverse and disparate, but also global’

Julio Ramón Sanz gained a degree in Art History from the University of Zaragoza in 1995, a Postgraduate Diploma in Cultural Heritage Management (University of Zaragoza, 2000), a Master’s in Urban Planning (University of Zaragoza, 2001) and a Postgraduate Specialization Programme in the organisation and management of cultural companies (Open University of Catalonia, 2007).

Since 2005, he has been a Senior Faculty member of the Cultural Heritage of Museums, which is part of the government of Aragon, and was also the curator of the Huesca Museum between 2005 and 2013, when he became its director. In 2015 he was appointed Director of the Zaragoza Museum in Service Commission and in February 2017 he became the IAACC Pablo Serrano Director after winning the contest initiated for this purpose. In 2019 he was appointed Curator of the Circa XX collection attached to the IAACC Pablo Serrano collections.

What do you think of the importance of private collecting in the world of contemporary art?

Throughout the history of art, collecting has been fundamental for the promotion of the arts and artists. A significant change is the fact that collectors choose to show their collections to the public, making them known to society, thus sharing a passion that can help generate interest in art and encourage its acquisition. 

Private collecting implies connecting artists with the society in which they live, and the society with the artists that it creates. From this point on, we should not think of a few collectors who acquire a large number of works, but rather a network of citizens who acquire art, that art becomes part of society, and that there are a large number of people who are passionate about the art that they acquire.

Are Spanish collectors the backbone of the contemporary art world, today?

Spanish collectors, like all of them, are essential. Each society, each country, has to watch over its artists, at the same as being one of the entry channels for artists and trends from outside national borders. In art, as in other areas of our society, each participant plays their role: museums, artists, art galleries, society and, of course, collectors.

How do you currently see the projection of contemporary art in the world?

I like to see contemporary art as a reflection of the society in which it is born, therefore, I sincerely believe that current art is diverse and disparate, but also global.

Is there a private collection in Spain that stands out internationally and that excites you?

Of the private collections, the collection of Dª Pilar Citoler continues to stand out, since she has not stopped collecting. However, I would also highlight collectors who have decided to put their collections and their passion at the service of citizens, such as the gallery owner and collector Helga de Alvear and her Museum in Cáceres, the donation made by the gallery owner and collector Soledad Lorenzo, who in 2014 temporarily donated almost 400 works from her collection in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, or the project Bombas Gens, Center d’art de Valencia.

What role do contemporary art museums play in relation to the art world, artists, galleries, and collectors?

I believe that contemporary art museums should be the place for meeting and reflection. They must play the role of holding together everything that is happening in contemporary art, beyond the legitimate interests of the rest of the agents that are part of this world.

It is true that contemporary art does not connect with society?

I think it is true that there is a disconnect between artists and the art they produce and much of society. That is why I firmly believe in the role of museums as mediators between the two, since the existence of artists and their art is essential and so that society can enjoy, reflect, and vibrate with them.

Can you describe the Ara-gonese Institute of contemporary culture and art?

The IAACC Pablo Serrano, is a public museum owned and managed by the Autonomous Community of Aragon, and which is administratively dependent on the General Directorate of Culture (Department of Education, Culture and Sports). The main mission of the IAACC Pablo Serrano is the development of the cultural policy of the Diputación General de Aragón regarding the promotion and dissemination of contemporary art and culture, through the permanent exhibition of its collections, facilitating knowledge, research and enjoyment, the patrimonial management of its collections, and the promotion of artistic creativity. Its collection ‘… is structured around the Spanish art of the 20th and 21st centuries with a special emphasis on the most relevant Aragonese artists or on the most significant artistic periods in Aragon, also incorporating those international artists and plastic movements that are considered beneficial for your better understanding’.

Tell me about the Fundación Aragonesa Circa XX Pilar Citoler Collection and about the Board and its objectives

It is a private foundation with a public initiative which is located at Paseo de María Agustín, number 20, in Zaragoza, at the IAACC Pablo Serrano headquarters. The Community of Aragon is the geographical area in which it mainly carry out its activities.

The purposes of the Foundation, as stated in its statutes, are the protection, conservation, documentation, exhibition, dis- semination, improvement, and expansion of the collection of contemporary art ‘Circa XX’, acquired by the Government of Aragon. 

These works are attached to the collection of the IAACC Pablo Serrano and are comprised of more than 1,200 works from different artistic disciplines, from the second half of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century. In general, the collection is intended to contribute to the cultural promotion of contemporary Aragonese, Spanish, and universal art.

And what about the ‘Circa XX Collection’?

At the end of 2013, the transmission protocol for the Circa XX collection was signed between its owner, the art collector, Pilar Citoler, and the Government of Aragon. Through this agreement, a large part of the collection was donated, and the rest purchased. This private collection is focussed on contemporary art from the second half of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st, and has now become a public collection, whose owner is the Government of Aragon. The transfer of ownership was accompanied by the creation of the Fundación Aragonesa Circa XX Pilar Citoler Collection, which is a private entity with a public initiative whose duties include the dissemination, promotion, and execution of activities related to the collection and contemporary art.

How was this great artistic fund created?

The gestation of this important artistic collection is due to the personal commitment of the collector Pilar Citoler, led by what she has defined ‘as a way of conceiving life’. She has continuously collected works of art for more than four decades through different means, including acquisitions in galleries, trips to art fairs, or thanks to personal contacts with various artists and dealers. The collection has gradually gained importance over the years. Thanks to this continuity in its expansion, its selective acquisition, the volume of works, and its proven quality, it has become one of the leading private collections of contemporary art in Spain.

How many works are in the collection?

The Circa XX collection, which became part of the IAACC Pablo Serrano collections, is an important artistic collection made up of more than 1,200 works that show the main currents and artists that illustrate the artistic trends of recent decades, both on the Spanish and international scenes. The heterogeneous collection reflects the sensitivity and personal taste of its original owner, as alluded to by Antonio Bonet Correa when he wrote about ‘The fascination and enjoyment of looking at art. There is no art without obsession’. It is made up of works of different formats and techniques and includes paintings, drawings, graphic work, photography, sculpture, installations, and video.

Do you know how the collection started?

The collection began its journey with the acquisition of works by Spanish post-war artists at the beginning of the seventies, such as the works of the El Paso Group or the so-called Cuenca Group. The acquisition of works by Spanish artists has been constant throughout the following decades. This endows the collection with one of its unique qualities and makes it a privileged sample of the panorama of national production over the last fifty years. Thus, we find works by Feito, Millares, Saura, Serrano, Francés, Rivera, the Hispanic pop of Equipo Crónica, Palazuelo, Rueda and even current artists such as Broto, Chema Cobo, and Pérez Villalta, among many others.

Another avenue of growth was to introduce the great international artistic trends and target the historical avant-gardes with certain works. Within these currents we can find works from North American and British pop-art (remember that the collection was born in the 1970s in the full bloom of this movement) to abstract expressionism, the CoBrA group, post-minimalism, the Italian trans-avant-garde, or informalism.

Are there internationally renowned artists?

Yes, as Fernando Sarría, Conservator Collection Circa XX (2014–2019) has said in various publications, the international ar-tists represented are very nume-rous and we find examples from early German expressionism by Nolde, others by Chi-rico, Dubuffet, Le Corbusier, Ben Nicholson, Francis Bacon, and Niki de Saint-Phalle. There is a large representation of the Pop movement with works by Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, David Hockney, and Andy Warhol. Oriental abstract art, the presence of which is unique within Spanish collections, also has a place with the representation of the Gutai group, such as the works Sofu Teshigahara and Takashi Suzuki.

In addition, thanks to the personal relationships of Pilar Citoler, we have a group of artists who are well represented in the collection, among which Wolf Vostell, promoter of the Fluxus movement, stands out for the number and quality of his works.

Although quantitatively the photography collection does not match the number of other categories, the quality of the works represented is magnificent and combines works by established creators such as Man Ray, Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson, and Mapplethorpe and even artists, either through digital or analogue photography, who are active and conceive photography as an autonomous artistic enterprise, as is the case with Pierre Gonnord, James Casebere, and Candida Höfer, among others.

Has Pilar Citoler been recognised as a collector?

Pilar Citoler’s vital dedication to collecting has been recognised by the Presidency of the Board of Trustees of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid. Her collecting has also won various awards, among which can be highlighted the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts from the Ministry of Culture of Spain and the Art and Patronage Foundation Award for private collecting in Spain, among others.

When was the Pablo Serrano Foundation-Museum created and when did it become a museum?

On July 29, 1985, the Creation Act of the Pablo Serrano Museum-Foundation was signed, thus fulfilling the sculptor’s wish that Zaragoza had a museum to house his work. After a long and complicated process (the sculptor died in November 1985), the museum opened its doors on 27 May, 1994. In order to house the collection, the Zaragoza architect José Manuel Pérez Latorre restored the old Pignatelli workshops in the Aragonese capital.

However, in June 1995, the Pablo Serrano Museum-Foundation was dissolved and became the property of the Government of Aragon (Decree 164/1995, BOA 19 July, 1995). At this time, it was decided to combine the Museum with the work of Pablo Serrano in a single project, according to the ambition of the Government of Aragon to create a museum of contemporary art. This modification emphasises that the IAACC Pablo Serrano collection will be structured around the art of the 20th and 21st centuries, thus constituting a living museum, where not only works from past decades are displayed, but also the art that is truly contemporary and being created at the moment.

Has the museum building been expanded?

Since its inauguration in 1995, the Pablo Serrano Museum has significantly expanded the various activities it carries out, such as exhibition, documentary, conservation, as well as everything related to educational and customer services.

However, this increase in activities has not been reflected in an increase in its physical capacity, so that as time has passed, the possibilities offered by its original spaces and architectural conception have become exhausted.

Initially conceived as a monothematic museum that exhibited the work of Pablo Serrano, over time it has progressively assumed a greater activity around the proposal to become a centre for Contemporary Aragonese Art. It should be remembered that the creation decree of 1995 conceived the Museum as the Aragonese Institute of Contemporary Art and Culture.

For this reason, the Government of Aragon commissioned the same architect José Manuel Pérez Latorre to carry out an ambitious expansion; the works began in 2008 and concluded in 2011, thus increasing the useful area of the Museum from 2,500 m2 to about 7,400 m2.

The main building, distinguished by its sawtooth roof, is where the most relevant part of the expansion was carried out with two significant actions. The first, accomplished by means of an excavation under the room that housed the old permanent exhibition of Pablo Serrano, expanded the reserve rooms. The second intervention, and the most visually impressive, was executed by means of a vertical extension of the original industrial building, through the erection of a large self-supporting metal structure on four large vertical reinforced concrete supports.

This large, raised body stands out powerfully when viewed from outside the building because of its strong geometric volumes and its black and blue lacquered metal plate finishes.

What can you say about the museum collections?

The Museum has collections of more than 5,000 works, with a prominent presence of Aragonese artists. They cover a chronological span that goes from the second half of the 20th century to the present day. In the IAACC Pablo Serrano collection the following blocks stand out: the Pablo Serrano collection, from the artist’s private collection, which was donated to the Aragonese people in 1985, and is made up of the artist’s sculptures, drawings, and graphic work.

We also have the Juana Francés collection, who was an artist from Alicante and Pablo Serrano’s wife. After her death, an important part of her collection became part of the archive of the Pablo Serrano Museum Foundation. The art works integrated into the IAACC Pablo Serrano, is made up of an important selection of works that show different artistic stages. This legacy has subsequently been increased through acquisitions and dona-tions, such as the so-called Escolano Collection, which is a remarkable collection of graphic work, consisting of more than 700 prints made by more than 400 prominent Spanish and foreign artists. This was donated to the Government of Aragon in 1995 by its owner Mr. Román Escolano.

Another notable donation was made by Marie-Claire Decay, widow of the Teruel painter Salvador Victoria, who gave the Government of Aragon a set of 70 works by one of the protagonists of the integration of Spanish painting into the international avant-garde of the second half of the 20th century. Salvador Victoria is also one of the key artists of Aragon and, of course, the Circa XX collection, which we described previously.

Finally, it should be noted that the contemporary art fund of the Government of Aragon has helped to contribute to the Museum’s collections. Since the creation of the General Council of Aragon, it has increased the collections of the IAACC Pablo Serrano by two types of action: on the one hand, by the acquisition of works by established artists and, on the other, by the acquisition of work by emerging creators from the Aragonese art scene.