Acquisitions
Malba has an expansive policy regarding its collection, and during the year its work includes an acquisition program. In light of the fact that it is the only collection of Latin American art on public display in Argentina, and the only collection of Argentinean art currently on permanent exhibition, the growth of its patrimony is essential for its progress as an institution. Community responsibility and a key role in the field of education are two aspects central to Malba’s policies.
Augmenting the museum’s patrimony also increases the scope for a more active and intense exhibition and presentation dynamic, making the museum’s environment a changing, provocative space where something new is always to be learned and discovered.
Among the artists incorporated into Malba’s collection through the purchase of work during the past three years, two who can be mentioned are: Liliana Porter, whose fundamental pieces Wrinkle, 1968, and Untitled with Books, 1989, were acquired by the Eduardo F. Costantini Foundation, and Guillermo Kuitca, with his piece Congreso, dos Cámaras, (Congress, Two Halls) 2002.
Donations
Works donated by individuals and institutions are a basic condition for the continued expansion of the Museum’s collection. Donated art received is publicly exhibited with special recognition extended to the donors, with a clear mention of the origin of the piece and the manner in which it became part of the Museum’s collection.
Malba would like to thank the artists, artists’ families and individuals whose generous donations have enriched the Museum’s collection, enabling Malba to offer viewers an ever expanding panorama of Latin American art, spanning from the beginning of the 20th Century up until the present day.
Loans
With the objective of offering the public paradigmatic Latin American works, or introducing artists absent from our institution’s collection, the Museum foments long-term loans of pieces from other national or international collections, either public or private, that our institution houses for a period ranging from one to three years. Malba sustains a strong strategy of borrowing, exhibiting the pieces obtained, whether within the regular museum display of the permanent collection or in the areas with rotating exhibitions, such as the first and second floor galleries. Among the artists presented within this program, figure: Venezuelan Jesús Soto, Argentinean artists Aldo Paparella and Liber Badii, and Brazilian artist Arthur Lescher. Figuring among those who have borrowed works are José Antonio and Inés Berni, the Cisneros Collection (Caracas, Venezuela) and the Galería Nara Roesler (São Paulo, Brazil).
Malba loans
Malba has a sustained, ongoing involvement in the worldwide lending circuit, where its collaboration includes lending works for diverse exhibitions. Requests made by parallel national and international institutions demonstrate the importance of the Museum’s collection, and its growing effect in terms of Latin American art’s recognition and dissemination. In addition, the presence of important pieces on temporary loan from Malba contributes to asserting Argentina’s collecting tradition in a global context, in addition to the contribution it represents toward conservation and scholarship of Latin America’s heritage. Among the institutions that have requested pieces from the Museum’s collection between 2001 and 2004 figure the following: Americas Society (New York), Museo Rufino Tamayo (Mexico City), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), IVAM Centre Julio González (Valencia), MAM and Museu de Arte Brasileira, Armando Álvarez Penteado Foundation (São Paulo), GAMeC (Bérgamo), Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), Los Angeles County Museum (Los Angeles), Centro Cultural Recoleta (Buenos Aires), Fundación Proa (Buenos Aires), and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires).
