Murcia now has its own home for modern art

The only museum to that genre in the region

On Friday, 15 January, there was the official unveiling of the first permanent exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art of the Region of Murcia (MURAM) in Cartagena making it, in this way, the only space dedicated to this type of art there. The collection includes 70 works that include paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs and video.

Previously, since 2009, the MURAM used to host temporary exhibitions

Visitors and art aficionados can now look forward to feasting their eyes on original masterpieces by such luminaries as Salvador Dali, Pedro Flores, Ramón Gaya, Tàpies, Molina Sánchez and many others. All of the artists on show were central to the emergence of Spanish modern art during the 20^th and early 21^st century as a force to be reckoned with and admired on a global scale.

“Visitors to MURAM will be able to complete an itinerary that covers more than a century of Spanish and regional art through the most significant trends of modernity, in a period of enormous cultural activity characterized by the push of the avant-garde, research in techniques and materials and the diversity of trends and themes, combining the desire for renewal and respect for tradition,” said Esperanza Moreno, the regional Minister of Education and Culture.

Modernism in art, of course, does not represent a single style but is the catch-all term for a variety of genres that sprung up during the last hundred years. Some of these are realism, abstract, cubist, among others.

The works give the viewers a nice overview of the development of modernism in Spanish art with many iconic pieces on display. The collection itself was partially acquired from the Community Art Fund.