ARCO Foundation Awards the Collection of the Bank of the Republic of Colombia

The ARCO Foundation highlighted with its international award to the Bank of the Republic of Colombia collection within the Awards "A" to the collecting to be given on February 25, in Madrid for the 19th consecutive year.

This awards edition, in which the ARCO Foundation annually recognizes the work of collectors at national and international level, also awarded the Iberdrola collection in the category corporate collecting by its commitment to the art and its labor of work of patronage, as well as the Bar-on collection in the category of private collectors.

In addition, and as something new this year, a special prize "A" will be given to Celia Sredni de Birbragher, ArtNexus founder.

The Art Collection from the Bank of the Republic of Colombia, initiated in 1957, now has more than 5,000 representative works by Colombia, Latin American and international artistsof the past 500 years, gathered through a permanent program of acquisitions and donations such as that of Fernando Botero.

According to ARCO, the museums of the Bank of the Republic of Colombia, in which different collections are exhibited, they permanently carry out first level international exhibitions, retrospectives of Colombian artists and exhibitions by young artists.

According to José Darío Uribe, manager of the Bank of the Republic, "the main boost by carrying out these collections has not been focused on treasuring, but preserving and make available to all the Colombians, art works contributing to the intellectual development of the country."

The Award to Corporate Collecting recognized the important boost that the Iberdrola Collection has received in the past seven years. It has been considerably reordered and extended, the Foundation highlights.

The Iberdrola collection has a block of Basque art works of late 19th century and early 20th with paintings, among others, followed by a second section consisting of works by Spanish artists from 1957 to the present day with works by Oteiza, Chillida, Tàpies, Saura, Palazuelo and Antonio López,, among many others.

From 2001, the collection is opened to international artists and other supports like photography and video, with samples of Gerhard Richter, representatives of the school of Düsseldorf and authors such as Cy Twombly, Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, Francesca Woodman, Wolfgang Tillmans, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Shirin Neshat, Mona Hatoum, Gabriel Orozco, Vik Muniz, Willie Doherty and Luisa Lambri, among others.

The Bar-On collection, focused on Colombian contemporary art with some international figure was also awarded. They artists involved in such award are Luis Fernando Roldan, Ana González, María Paris, Angelica Maria Zorrilla, Flavia's Rhine, Bernardo Ortiz, Alberto Baraya, Johanna Street, Liliana Angulo, María José Argenzio, Maria Fernanda, Cardoso, or Mark Dion, among others.

For her part, Colombian Celia Sredni de Birbragher, winner with the special award, and founder of the ArtNexus magazine in 1982, she is considered one of the pioneers in the defense of the Latin American art. Since then, 135 editions have been published and It has a team of more than 150 collaborators around the world.

Colombia is the guest country of honor at the 34th Edition of ARCO, which will be held from February 25 to March, 1 in Madrid.

Source: Agencia EFE