Art Spain

24/5/2014

Pablo Palazuelo. París, 13 rue Saint-Jacques (1948-1968)

Free Spanish Art: Get Fundación Juan March's Catalogues

Information about contemporary Spanish art is difficult to find even for a relatively-fluent Spanish speaker like me, so I am pleased to see Fundación Juan March joining American and British counterparts in offering free online access to all its exhibition catalogues since 1973.

Miquel Barceló. "Ceramiques" (1995-1998) Only Spanish and Catalan :(

Established in 1955 by Spanish financier Juan March Ordinas, the Fundación Juan March is a family–run institution that organizes art exhibitions, concerts, lecture series, and seminars.

The 180 catalogues on offer are from exhibitions held at the Fundación's three venues since 1973 - in Madrid, Cuenca (the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español) and Palma de Mallorca (the Museu Fundación Juan March).

That's over 27,000 pages of material, including essays by more than 400 authors and images of 18,000 works by nearly 1,400 artists - not all of them Spanish or contemporary, of course.

Fundación Juan March in English

The whole website is available in English and the information doesn't suddenly revert into Spanish beyond the first couple of layers - unlike other site I could mention!

The catalogues are available online in their original languages which means many - although not all - are available in English.

There is also an 'advanced navigation tool' which allows for 'interconnected searches across the entire site and within each catalogue.' Results can be filtered by date, title, language and relevance.

The Avant-Garde Applied (1890-1950)

A Spanish institution aiming to stay ahead of international competition

The Fundación pledges to add to the collection by uploading new catalogues one year after the closure of an exhibition or once all print copies have been sold. This compares favourably to some of the bigger institutions worldwide only offering older catalogues so don't miss out.