A History and a Collection

Alberto Elía and Mario Robirosa are notable collectors and gallery directors who have constructed a virtuous circle involving both figures, which they embody with great prestige and generosity. Between the two, they unite and condense the criteria by way of which works by a series of artists—that we can denominate “from the eighties”, granting this quick chronological categorization the faculty of naming a cultural phenomenon that is far more complex—constitute a singular body of work in the history of the nation’s art.
Developed over the course of many years, their collection has promoted (we can almost say: created) the generation that has given us names such as Jorge Pirozzi, Duilio Pierri, Eduardo Iglesias Brickles and Diego Perrotta; today the Museo Nacional
de Bellas Artes receives the donation of this collection in an act that does the institution great honor.
This is not only a way to take in patrimony that is fundamental for the Nation, but above all, to celebrate the exquisite labor of those who have had both the gift and the audacity to champion an essential chapter in Argentina’s visual arts.

Andrés Duprat
Director
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes

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This exhibition presents a selection of works recently donated to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes by Alberto Elía and Mario Robirosa. Their collection began to take shape during the ‘80s, when they decided to open an art gallery. With this initiative they proposed to create a space where emerging artists would be able to exhibit their works, while at the same time drawing the era’s most relevant artists together. Argentina was recovering its democracy at the time, and her culture breathed the air of renovation deep. The group of pieces they brought together also bore a relationship with global aesthetic trends that were hallmarks
of the 1980s and 1990s, like the return to painting or the international trans-avant-garde.
There are two core themes in this selection. “The return to painting” focuses on emerging artists from the ‘80s and ‘90s who shared the same aesthetic concerns and a driving search for renovation. “Figures of reference” brings together artists from
preceding generations such as Alberto Heredia, Pablo Suárez, Luis Felipe Noé, Marta Minujín and Gabriel Messil, who both complemented and influenced the period’s return to traditional art practices.

Pablo De Monte y Florencia Galesio
Curators