Es Baluard Museu d’Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma, located in Palma and inaugurated on 30 January 2004, has a reserve of more than 700 works of art linked to artists from the Balearic Islands and/or of international renown. As well as conserving and publicising its collection, Es Baluard runs a programme of temporary exhibitions, cultural activities and educational and training cycles. The main artists and movements related to the Balearic Islands form a body which took shape after the initial presentation of the collection which was made in the year the museum opened. Since then, the original nucleus of the museum’s reserves – made up of donations and the deposit of works by the Art Serra Foundation (Fundació d’Art Serra), as well as works deposited by Palma City Council (Ajuntament de Palma), the Council of Mallorca (Consell de Mallorca) and the Government of the Balearic Islands (Govern de les Illes Balears) – has been added to as a result of the introduction of further works that have been acquired, donated and temporarily ceded by artists, collectors and entities.

Location

The main building was designed in 2003 by Lluís García-Ruiz, Jaume García-Ruiz, Vicente Tomás and Angel Sánchez Cantalejo. It has a total surface area of 5,027 m², of which 2,500 are used as exhibition spaces. It is divided into three storeys which are connected to the outside, to the city walls and to each other by means of ramps, skylights and large interior balconies, in an attempt to reflect an indoor street concept.

The collection

The Collection of Es Baluard Museu d’Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma includes works of art by the most significant artists and movements that have converged in the past and continue to converge in the

Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago forms a Provinces of Spain, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain, ...

, from the late 19th century to the present. It begins with the works of pictorial modernism and the renovation of the landscape genre in Spain, showcasing the importance of Mallorca in its development.

Joaquim Mir Joaquin Mir Trinxet (Barcelona 6 January 1873 – 8 April 1940) was a Spanish artist known for his use of color in his paintings. He lived through a turbulent time in the history of his native Barcelona. His paintings helped to define the Cat ...

Santiago Rusiñol Santiago Rusiñol i Prats (, ; Barcelona 25 February 1861 – Aranjuez 13 June 1931) was a Spanish painter, poet, journalist, collector and playwright. He was one of the leaders of the Catalan '' modernisme'' movement. He created more than ...

, Hermen Anglada-Camarasa,

Joaquín Sorolla Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (27 February 1863 – 10 August 1923) was a Spanish painter. Sorolla excelled in the painting of portraits, landscapes, and monumental works of social and historical themes. His most typical works are characterized by ...

, Antoni Gelabert and Tito Cittadini are some of the key artists from this period, placed between the late 19th century and the 1930s; alongside them are two female creators, Pilar Montaner de Sureda and

Norah Borges Leonor Fanny "Norah" Borges Acevedo (March 4, 1901 – July 20, 1998), was an Argentine visual artist and art critic, member of the Florida group, and sister of the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. Early life and source of nickname She w ...

, who were associated to the artistic and literary trends of the day.Video "Es Baluard, Museum of Modern Art"
English, 1:07 min., Mallorca TV Teleweb+ The early years of the 20th century, meanwhile, bear witness to the emergence in Europe of the different avant-garde movements which rebelled against the hegemony of western figurative art, a state of cultural crisis that was heightened after World War One and which would continue in the 1940s and ‘50s, advocating a questioning of the artistic object. The artists represented include

María Blanchard María Gutiérrez-Cueto y Blanchard
spanish-art.org; accessed 4 August 2015. (6 March 1881 – 5 Apri ...

Wifredo Lam Wifredo Óscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla (; December 8, 1902 – September 11, 1982), better known as Wifredo Lam, was a Cuban artist who sought to portray and revive the enduring Afro-Cubans, Afro-Cuban spirit and culture. Inspired by ...

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

André Masson André-Aimé-René Masson (; 4 January 1896 – 28 October 1987) was a French artist. Biography Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, Oise, but when he was eight his father's work took the family first briefly to Lille and then to Brus ...

Roberto Matta Roberto Sebastián Antonio Matta Echaurren (; November 11, 1911 – November 23, 2002), usually known simply as Matta, also as Sebastián Matta or Roberto Matta, was one of Chile's best-known Painting, painters and a seminal figure in 20th ...

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , ; ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan Spanish painter, sculptor and Ceramic art, ceramist. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona ...

Robert Motherwell Robert Motherwell (January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991) was an American Abstract Expressionism, abstract expressionist Painting, painter, printmaker, and editor of ''The Dada Painters and Poets: an Anthology''. He was one of the youngest of th ...

Jorge Oteiza Jorge Oteiza (October 21, 1908 – April 9, 2003), was a Basques, Basque Spain, Spanish sculpture, sculptor, painting, painter, designer and writing, writer from the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country, renowned for being one of th ...

Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

, Juli Ramis and

Antoni Tàpies Antoni Tàpies i Puig, 1st Marquess of Tápies, Marquess of Tàpies (; 13 December 1923 – 6 February 2012) was a Catalans, Catalan painter, sculptor, and art theorist. Life The son of Josep Tàpies i Mestre and Maria Puig i Guerra, Antoni T ...

, among others. New figuration, pop, minimalism or conceptual art are just some of the tendencies that arose from the ‘sixties onwards, a period in which social and cultural ensued and which would later be called “postmodernism”. Erwin Bechtold,

Joan Brossa Joan Brossa (; 19 January 1919 – 30 December 1998) was a Catalan poet, playwright, graphic designer and visual artist. He wrote only in the Catalan language. He was one of the founders of both the group and the publication known as Dau-al-Se ...

Erró Erró (born Guðmundur Guðmundsson in 1932 in Ólafsvík, Iceland) is a visual artist and painter, who is best known for his painted pop art collages of images from comic books and advertisements.

, Juan Genovés,

Hans Hartung Hans Hartung (21 September 1904 – 7 December 1989) was a German-French painter, known for his gestural abstract style. He was also a decorated World War II veteran of the Legion d'honneur. Life Hartung was born in Leipzig, Germany, into an ...

Rebecca Horn Rebecca Horn (24 March 1944 – 6 September 2024) was a German visual artist best known for her installation art, film directing and body modifications such as ''Einhorn'' (Unicorn), a body-suit with a very large horn projecting vertically from ...

Antoni Miralda Antoni Miralda (born 1942 in Terrassa, Spain) is a Spanish multidisciplinary artist. Biography Miralda Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid. ''Catalogue of the exhibition Miralda De gustibus non disputandum'', 2010 was born in Terr ...

Pablo Palazuelo Pablo Palazuelo (October 8, 1915 – October 3, 2007) was a Spanish painter and sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically ...

Antonio Saura Antonio Saura Atarés (September 22, 1930 – July 22, 1998) was a Spanish artist and writer, one of the major post-war painters to emerge in Spain in the fifties whose work has marked several generations of artists and whose critical voice is ...

and Rafael Tur Costa, for example, precede the new generation of recognised painters: Miquel Barceló, José Manuel Broto, Miguel Ángel Campano, Maria Carbonero, Ramon Canet, Luis Gordillo, Anselm Kiefer and Juan Uslé. A wide diversity of languages shapes today’s artistic panorama, with creators such as Lida Abdul,

Marina Abramović Marina Abramović ( sr-Cyrl, Марина Абрамовић, ; born November 30, 1946) is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist. Her work explores body art, endurance art, the relationship between the performer and audience, the limit ...

, Pilar Albarracín,

Christian Boltanski Christian Liberté Boltanski (6 September 1944 – 14 July 2021) was a French sculptor, photographer, painter, and film maker. He is best known for his photography installations and contemporary French conceptual style. Early life Boltanski wa ...

, Daniel Canogar,

Toni Catany Toni Catany (1942-2013) was a Catalan photographer. Catany was born in Llucmajor. His work is included in collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, and the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. Biography Self-t ...

, Ñaco Fabré, Mónica Fuster, Alberto García-Alix, Núria Marqués, Jorge Mayet, Joan Morey, Michael Najjar, Marina Núñez, Bernardí Roig, Francisco Ruiz de Infante, Amparo Sard, Antoni Socías and Nicholas Woods as examples of this evolution of contemporary artistic practice.

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control Contemporary art galleries in Spain Modern art museums Museums in the Balearic Islands Palma de Mallorca Culture of Mallorca Art museums and galleries established in 2004 2004 establishments in Spain Tourist attractions in Mallorca