The new exhibition “Un lugar para Puerto Rico: la colección contemporánea, 1959-1965” [A place for Puerto Rico: the contemporary collection, 1959-1965] opens tomorrow, April 13, 2018, from 6:00 to 9:00pm at the Ponce Museum of Art [Museo de Arte de Ponce]. El Nuevo Día reports:

The Baroque and Victorian painting collections of the Ponce Museum of Art eclipse any other facet of the institution. However, contemporary Puerto Rican art was also present from the beginning and, in fact, it was especially central in the early years of the museum, as recent research has highlighted. “It will be a unique opportunity to explore a short chapter in the cultural history of the island,” said Alejandra Peña, executive director of the museum.

From the beginning, the presence of certain artists was striking, for example, Bartolomé Mayol and Luis Hernández Cruz, along with figures such as Rafael Tufiño, Olga Albizu, Lorenzo Homar, and Ponce-born artist Miguel Pou, who at that time was the Puerto Rican artist with the greatest commercial success.

The exhibition reflects the order in which the museum acquired the works to show the development of the Puerto Rican gallery over time. From the point of view of collecting history of, the exhibition invites us to rethink the relationship of the founder of the museum, Luis A. Ferré (1904-2003), with Puerto Rican art of his time.

“Ferré’s museographic project sought to reclaim a place for Puerto Rico within the canon of art history,” explained the museum’s curator of European art, Pablo Pérez d’Ors. “The Puerto Rican hall of the Ponce Museum of Art was an important milestone, especially if we remember that no other institution in the world then had a permanent and non-commercial installation of Puerto Rican art,” he added. [. . .]

[Excerpts translated by Ivette Romero. For full article (in Spanish), see https://www.elnuevodia.com/entretenimiento/cultura/nota/elmuseodeartedeponceexhibesustesorospuertorriquenos-2413290/]