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Malba expands its collection in its 25th anniversary year
In its 25th anniversary year, the Malba Museum in Buenos Aires is expanding its collection with eight new works, enriching and diversifying one of the most important collections of Latin American art in the region. The additions include pieces by Juan Del Prete, Líbero Badíi, Jorge Pineda, Mario Testino, and Margarita Paksa, and were acquired through the museum's Acquisitions Committee as well as private and institutional donations.
Among the new acquisitions are Juan Del Prete's Abstraction with Material and Líbero Badíi's Sinister Knowledge No. 4 "The Being." The arrival of the latter also marks Badíi's inclusion in the museum's permanent collection. Both pieces were selected by the Acquisitions Committee based on a proposal developed by Malba's curatorial team, comprised of María Amalia García, Chief Curator; Nancy Rojas, Curator; Alejandra Aguado, Artistic Coordinator of Malba Puertos and Curator of the Eduardo F. Costantini Collection; and Valeria Intrieri, Head of Collection Registration and Management.
The selection of these two works reflects a desire to further expand the historical and artistic narrative of the collection. In the case of Del Prete, his inclusion allows for new connections to be established with other fundamental pieces in the collection, including Emilio Pettoruti's abstract charcoal drawings from 1914 and the important group of works related to inventionism and cut-out frames. Del Prete's presence thus opens new possibilities for approaching the history of abstraction from a more pluralistic and complex perspective.
Libero Badíi, Sinister Knowledge No. 4 "The Being", 1973, W Gallery. Provenance: Helft Collection.
The addition of Líbero Badíi, meanwhile, reflects a desire to address a significant gap in the collection. An Argentine artist born in Italy, Badíi belonged to a generation particularly interested in exploring the relationship between contemporary art and the ancient cultures of the Americas. His research fostered a constant dialogue with these traditions and gave color a unique role in a body of work marked by a particular sensitivity to American forms of representation.
The growth of the collection is closely linked to the work of the Acquisitions Committee, created in 2012 and which has since become a fundamental part of the policy for incorporating new works. According to Elena Nofal, Malba's Director of Development, the committee currently has more than eighty members and has enabled the consolidation of sustained growth in the collection. The process began years earlier, in 2004, with the first acquisitions made exclusively within the framework of arteBA, and was subsequently expanded through the participation of collectors, donors, and companies.
These two acquisitions are joined by six other works that have come to the museum through donations. Among them is East of Paradise , a 1995 woodcut by Jorge Pineda, donated by Patricia Phelps de Cisneros in honor of María Amalia León. This addition recognizes Pineda's career, a key figure in the renewal of visual arts in the Dominican Republic since the 1990s.
Two photographs by Mario Testino are also included: Gisele Bündchen, New York, Vanity Fair and Sienna Miller, Rome, American Vogue , both taken in 2007. The donation also establishes a new link with the museum's own history, since Testino presented the exhibition In Your Face at Malba in 2014.
The collection is completed with three works by Margarita Paksa, incorporated for the exhibition Margarita Paksa. Corresponding Ideas, 1964-1984 thanks to the donation of Sergio and Leandro Cairola Paksa. These are Corresponding Idea (1967), Identity in Two Situations (1967) and Discount Time, Countdown, Hour O. (1978).
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