A market for museums or the path followed by a modern art collection Buenos Aires 1956-1960

BERMEJO, TALIA

Londres

Congreso; Art, Materiality and Representation Conference, Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI); 2018

Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI), The Department of Africa, Oceania and The Americas of The British Museum and The Department of Anthropology at Soas.

This presentation forms part of a more extensive investigation that seeks toanalyse the articulations and tensions between a developing market, privatecollecting and the founding of art museums in Buenos Aires.The Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires opened in April 1956. Under thedirection of Argentine critic Rafael Squirru (Buenos Aires, 1925) the country thus witnessed the creation of the first such institution. Nevertheless, the museum had no home, no patrimony and just a meagre budget. In fact, the institutional collection took shape over several years, and only gained its own space thirty years later. This paper seeks to analyse the first actions in an institutional narrative, starting with articulation with other facets of art and, particularly, with the art market. In this respect, I shall focus on the points of contact and exchange and also the actions of disruption staged by Squirru as here sorted to rather unorthodox operations to create his museum.