Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art

The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (Catalan: Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, IPA: , MACBA, Catalan: ) is a contemporary art museum located in the Plaça dels Àngels, in the El Raval neighborhood, Ciutat Vella district, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It opened its doors to visitors on 28 November 1995.

Today, the museum is led by its director, Elvira Dyangani Ose. Over the years, several people have served as directors, including Daniel Giralt-Miracle, Miquel Molins Nubiola, Manuel Borja-Villel, Bartomeu Marí, and Ferran Barenblit. MACBA plays an important role in showing modern and current art to people of all ages.

History

In 1959, an art critic named Alexandre Cirici Pellicer started showing contemporary art in exhibitions, hoping to begin a new museum in Barcelona. It wasn’t until 1986 that plans began in earnest, with the City Council of Barcelona asking the architect Richard Meier & Partners to design the building. The museum, called MACBA, officially opened in 1995, after the 1992 Summer Olympics.

In 2014, the museum added a special space — a converted chapel and two large rooms — giving it more than 21,500 square feet of area to use. This historic building is now part of the museum and is used for special shows and performances.

Architecture

The building was designed to show many different kinds of modern art, even though the artist didn’t know what art would be there when he started. It is located in a special square called Plaça dels Àngels, close to some of Barcelona’s oldest streets.

After it was built for $35 million, people called it “the pearl” because it looked so nice next to the older buildings. The big white building lets in lots of natural light, and visitors can see across the plaza from inside. It has three big galleries and five smaller ones, including one in a tower.

Collection

The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art has a permanent collection of about 5,000 artworks, which started with 1,100 pieces when the museum opened in 1995. These artworks are from the mid-20th century onward and are divided into three time periods: the 1940s to 1960s, the 1960s to 1970s, and contemporary works. The collection mainly features art from Catalonia and Spain after 1945, but it also includes some international artists.

In 2007, the museum started a center for studying and documenting art. In 2011, an art collector named Philippe Méaille loaned 800 pieces by the group Art & Language to the museum. However, after political changes in Catalonia in 2017, he took the artworks back to Château de Montsoreau-Museum of contemporary art. In 2020, the museum received a very large gift of conceptual art from the Rafael Tous collection during the time Ferran Barenblit was leading the museum.

Education, publications, events

In December 2007, the museum started its Study Center. People can visit the Library Reading Room and Special Collections Room to read the museum’s books, publications, and archives for free.

The museum creates books about its exhibitions and sometimes writes other special books and essays. It also has three online magazines: Quaderns portàtils, Quaderns d'Àudio, and Sèrie Capella MACBA. The museum offers talks, classes, tours, and movie showings to help people learn more.

Location

The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art is located at Plaça dels Àngels 1 in Barcelona. The nearest metro stops are Catalunya and Universitat. Across from the museum, there is a chapel called the Capella del MACBA where visitors can watch free video art shows.

Next to the museum is another art place called the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, which can be reached from outside or through an inner patio. The space in front of the museum is famous among skateboarders and appears in the game “Skater” and was highlighted in Transworld Skateboarding magazine for Go Skateboarding Day in 2016.

Management

The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art is run by a group created in 1988. This group includes the government of Catalonia, the city of Barcelona, and the Spanish Ministry of Culture. In 2015, the director left because of a disagreement about an art show. Another director was chosen later that year. In 2021, Elvira Dyangani Ose became the new director, making her the first Black woman to lead the museum.