The CPPC Donates 49 Contemporary Photographic Artworks to the Museo Universidad de Navarra in Spain to Support Academic Research

About the donation
As part of Gustavo and Patricia Phelps de Cisneros' long-standing commitment to education, the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC) has announced the donation of photographic artworks to the Museo Universidad de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain. The donation is comprised of 49 pieces, mostly by Latin American artists from the 20th and 21st centuries. Among these artists are: Andreas Gursky (Germany, 1955), Juan Uslé (Spain, 1954), Héctor Fuenmayor (Venezuela, 1949), Roberto Obregón (Colombia / Venezuela, 1946–2003), Mariana Castillo Deball (Mexico, 1975), and Miguel Rio Branco (Brazil, 1946). Among the nine countries represented in this donation, artists of Latin American origin—especially from Venezuela and Brazil—predominate.

As Gustavo and Patricia Cisneros state: "Our focus has always been on education above all else. In recent decades, in addition to organizing various educational programs, we have collaborated extensively with universities and their museums, including Harvard, NYU, University of Texas at Austin, Hunter College, Wheaton College, and City University of New York.

A distinguishing aspect of this donation is the express request to the Museo Universidad de Navarra that the photographs be studied by students of the Master in Curatorial Studies, the only postgraduate course in Spain for the academic training of art curators. Professors, researchers, and students from other departments at the university will also have access to the donation, thus promoting the analysis of artistic photography from different areas of knowledge. The university will publish the findings of this research in articles and books.

Patricia Phelps de Cisneros has supported and collaborated with the Museo Universidad de Navarra since before its inauguration in 2015. She was especially interested in its important photography collection; the collegiate nature of the museum; the interdisciplinarity of the arts.

Jaime García del Barrio, General Director of the Museo Universidad de Navarra, states: "After all these years working with Gustavo and Patricia, we are very grateful for their donation. And above all, we are proud that the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC), so important and represented in the best museums in the world, has thought of us as the best home to house, conserve, and study part of its collection." According to García del Barrio, the donated works that are incorporated into the museum’s collection "represent a strengthening of the value and knowledge that our extensive photographic collection brings together, and underscore the richness of globalness, so present in our collection, with national and international artists."

The Museo Universidad de Navarra’s collection is comprised of more than 23,000 photographs by national and international artists spanning the history of photography, from the origins of the medium in the mid-19th century to the present.

Other donations from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros have been incorporated into the collections of important museums in Latin America, the United States, and Europe. Highlights include: The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York; the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires; the Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI); The Blanton Museum of Art of the University of Texas in Austin; and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. 

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